Child of the Mustangs
by Kinola
Summary: A donkey foal is raised by a herd of wild mustangs. As of Christmas 2010, this story is officially cancelled.
1. Birth of Something Far Greater

**Disclaimer: I own all the characters in this story. "Child of the Mustangs" was actually inspired by the Elizabeth Hall book called "Child of the Wolves."**

**And now, I present to you, "Child of the Mustangs."**

* * *

It was a brisk, spring afternoon on the High Hopes Ranch in Nevada. The month was May and already, the wilderness near the ranch was full of life. Herds of mustangs bolted by, little foals running alongside their dams. Birds were feeding their young chicks. And the ten broodmares who lived on the farm as well as the five donkey mares were no exception to the miracle of life that was upon them.

Standing in one of the ranch's fenced pastures was a pregnant donkey mare. She was nine summers old and a silver gray color. Her sea green eyes looked upwards at the blue sky as she thought of the life she was carrying within her. The humans who owned the ranch called her Cornelia.

"Oh, Victor," she whispered as she smiled sadly at the puffy white clouds that sailed in the sky like boats. "If only you could've lived long enough to see your foal being born. I know that you'll be so proud of him or her, and you'd be a great sire to that foal."

Victor was a donkey just like Cornelia, a dull gray. His muzzle, the tips of his ears, and his pasterns were a steel gray. He'd been an old stallion, at the age of twenty-four. Despite the age difference between Cornelia and Victor, they'd fallen in love when she'd come to the High Hopes Ranch two autumns ago, after she'd been bought from..._him_.

His name was Robert Quinn, but the donkey usually referred to him as just "Quinn." Cornelia was sold to him when she was one summer old, by her mother's owner. At first, he was kind; he fed, groomed, and cared for her properly. But that was when his wife, Anna, was alive. But when she died in a car accident one year after Cornelia was bought by Quinn, he turned harsh and evil, ultimately blaming his wife's death on the young donkey. He whipped, starved, and changed her named to "Fea," which was Spanish for "ugly." At first, Cornelia didn't know this, but when Quinn's guard dog Dyke, a mix between a German Sheppard and a wolfhound, told her this, she was furious with Quinn. She yearned to strike at that wretched man, to bite and kick at whatever she could reach. But she couldn't; her mother told her that no matter what, you must _never_ attack your owner. So, Cornelia endured Quinn's abuse for three years. Then, one day, when she was five a police man arrested Quinn for animal cruelty, and Cornelia was finally free of him.

She had stayed with an animal doctor for nearly three moons and was given to the High Hopes Ranch, and there, she met Victor. The two had mated last June, but in August, Victor got extremely ill. At first, the ranch's owner, Mr. Dolan, thought he'd pull through it, but sadly, it wasn't so. In September, his illness had gotten worse, and on October the third, Mr. Dolan had Victor put down. It was a dark day for Cornelia. Her mate was buried not to far from the ranch's entrance.

And after all that'd happened to her, Cornelia was all right. Though her mate was gone, she had friends here, and a foal was on the way for her.

"Cornelia!" a voice exclaimed. The silver gray mare turned to see one of her friends, a rime gray donkey named Phoebe. Like Cornelia, she was in foal, but the sire of the unborn foal was known as Hugo, who was younger than Victor, and still alive.

"Hey, Phoebe," Cornelia said, her sea green orbs meeting Phoebe's hazel ones. "What's up?"

"Nothing much," the other donkey replied as she came alongside Cornelia. "You still miss Victor, huh? Wish he were here?"

"Yes, Phoebe. But I'm glad for you; your mate Hugo is still alive." Hugo and Phoebe had been mates for four years.

"That's right." Phoebe glanced towards the rest of the donkey mares. There were four other jennies, or female donkeys, on the High Hopes Ranch asides from Cornelia and Phoebe, known as Nancy, Henrietta, Miranda, and Tabitha, who was the newest. Just two days ago, Nancy had given birth to a lanky, dark gray colt, named Bernard by the humans. Bernard's sire was Victor, just like Cornelia's unborn foal as well as the unborn foal of Miranda. Four days before that, Henrietta had her second foal, a colt who was named Maverick, sired by Hugo.

"Want to go and chat with the other mares?" Phoebe asked. Cornelia shook her head and replied, "No thanks, that's all right." Phoebe shrugged, muttered a "Suit yourself," and trotted off to converse with Miranda.

A small yet firm kick from the unborn foal within her womb made Cornelia glance at her stomach. "You're almost ready to come out, aren't you?" she humorously whispered. "Well, when you're born, you'll be a strong one. I can feel it." She smiled at this.

* * *

Later that afternoon, when the sun was going down, the two stable handlers, Lizzie and Kyle, came to the pasture to fetch the donkey mares.

"Take Cornelia in first, Kyle," Lizzie ordered. "Mr. Dolan says that she's getting close to giving birth, and if it'll be tonight, then I don't want her giving birth out here." "Yes, Liz," Kyle said as he hooked a lead line to the pregnant donkey's purple halter, whispering in an encouraging tone, "Come on, Cornelia, you sweet girl. Let's go inside to the nice warm stable."

On the High Hopes Ranch, the donkeys were put in a smaller stable, separate from the fifteen horses that were there. Cornelia was led inside; where she saw the empty stalls of Phoebe, Miranda, Nancy, Henrietta, and Tabitha (the stalls of Miranda and Nancy were on her left and her stall as well as those of Phoebe and Tabitha was on the right). On the far left of the stable was the stall of Hugo, one of the two breeding donkeys on the ranch, and on the right, was Victor's old stall. Cornelia thought the humans would leave it empty in his memory, but shortly after the passing of Victor, Mr. Dolan went and bought another donkey stallion. His name was Elijah, and his stall was next to Phoebe's. He was known to be exceptionally rude to everyone, even to his own kind.

"Oh, look at the fat mare hobbling in," Elijah sneered as Cornelia was led into her stall, his brown eyes filled with malice. The mare tried her best to ignore him as he continued. "Hey, Cornelia, did you gain a ton or—"

"Shut up, Elijah," Phoebe snapped as she was led into her stall. "She's pregnant and she might be having her foal soon. So show some respect for her. Or else." She bared her teeth at the last statement. Elijah rolled his eyes and muttered an apology.

Glad to be in her stall, Cornelia laid down and let out a sigh of relief. Tabitha, who was in the stall on her left, peered through an opening and questioned, "Hey Cornelia, do you feel any… you know…contractions?" The silver jenny shook her head. "No? Well, I don't mean to startle you, but I heard Mr. Dolan say that your foal might arrive sooner than _you_ expect."

"Oh, Tabitha," Cornelia sighed. "I don't believe in silly things like that. Superstition, I think of it to be." Tabitha glanced at her in suspicion, muttered something under her breath, and then moved away from the opening.

* * *

Later that night, when everyone was asleep, Cornelia awoke to feeling the unborn foal kicking. At first, she grew nervous, but when the kicking slowly began to subside, the jenny relaxed and laid her head down, but then, the kicking within her resumed, again. Nervous, she whispered, "Phoebe!"

"What is it?" said the rime gray jenny, looking out of the opening with sleepy eyes.

"Ph-Ph-Phoebe, I-I think it's c-c-coming!" Cornelia whispered with fright. "It's t-t-time!" The rime gray donkey's hazel eyes widened with shock. "What? Are you sure? Because I think it's just—"

"Yes, Phoebe, I'm sure! Quick, Kyle's in here; go wake him up! Hurry!" She grunted in pain when a contraction shook her body. Seconds later, her water broke and she brayed out in fear.

Meanwhile, Phoebe looked out of her stall door at the sleeping human known as Kyle. He was leaned against a barrel of hay. "Wake up, human!" Phoebe brayed. "Cornelia's giving birth; you gotta help her!" It worked, for Kyle jumped up in alarm and saw Phoebe motioning with her head towards Cornelia's stall. "What is it, girl?" Kyle asked, half-awake. "Is something—" He got to Phoebe's stall, but when he turned to check on Cornelia, he gasped in shock when he saw two small hooves coming out of the young jenny.

"Oh my God…Lizzie! Mr. Dolan!" Kyle shouted as he ran out of the barn. "Come here, quick! Cornelia's giving birth!"

Within minutes, the donkey stable was awake and all attention was focused on Cornelia. Lizzie, Kyle, and Mr. Dolan were in her stall, helping the donkey deliver her foal safely.

"Oh Eqqus…it hurts," Cornelia moaned in pain.

"It's gonna be okay, pal," Tabitha assured her. "You're going to be just fine. The humans are here and they'll help you out."

From across the aisle, in Nancy's stall, the colt Bernard awoke and stood up beside his dam, who'd heard Cornelia's cries. "Momma, what's happenin'?" the lanky colt questioned. His dam glanced down at him, her brown eyes meeting his blue-and-brown ones.

"It's Auntie Cornelia, my little Bernie," she replied softly. "She's having her foal, who's going to be your new half-sibling." Then, she turned back to listening to the voices coming from Cornelia's stall. Bernard's brown and blue eyes widened at his dam's reply and he exclaimed quietly, "I'm gonna have a new brother or sister!" Moving silently over to a far end in his and his dam's stall, he poked his muzzle through a small hole in the wood. On the other side of this hole was the stall of Henrietta and her steel gray colt, Maverick, the eldest donkey colt on the High Hopes Ranch.

"Maverick!" he whispered. "Are you there? Did you hear what's going on with Auntie Cornelia?"

"What? What is it?" said Maverick on the other side. He was a light gray like his dam, with tiny speckles of white on his hindquarters. His eyes were pale brown, like Hugo's.

"I'm gonna have a new half-brother or half-sister!" Bernard said happily. "Auntie Cornelia's having her foal right now."

"What? No way!"

And the two young colts whispered excitedly to each other, their tails swishing with excitement. Their mothers didn't pay any attention to them. Instead, they were focused on the stall of Cornelia.

* * *

Meanwhile, in her stall, Cornelia was struggling to bring life into the world. Despite the fact that Mr. Dolan, Kyle, and Lizzie were helping her, Cornelia wasn't assured. In fact, she was scared to death over this.

_"Oh, Victor!" _Cornelia thought as she gave a hard pushed. Only the foal's front legs and muzzle were out. _"I don't know if I can do this anymore…ugh…I didn't know giving birth would be so hard. Sure, I wanted to be a mother, but I didn't think it'd be so hard…"_

"Come on, Cornelia girl!" Mr. Dolan encouraged her. "You can do this; push girl, push!" Cornelia tried to, but she gave up.

_"Oh, who am I kidding?" _Cornelia thought as she let out a groan. _"It's too hard…I think I'm going to die…"_

_**"Cornelia!"**_ said a voice in her mind. _**"Don't say that!"**_

The jenny's sea green eyes were wide with surprise. "_Victor, is that you?"_

_**"Yes, my dear. It's me, Victor."**_

_"Oh, Vic! I'm so glad to hear you. I…I just can't do it anymore…it's too hard…"_

_**"Yes you can, Cornelia, I **__**know**__** you can. C'mon, girl, you can do this. You're tough; you were able to keep standing strong when you pulled that plow for Mr. Dolan when his tractor broke. Even though I'm dead and in that big green field in the sky, I'll always look out for both you and our foal, who's almost born. So c'mon, Cornelia, do it…for me." **_Then, Victor's voice was gone.

Cornelia's ears went back as she realized this. _"I can do it…yes! I __can__ do it, Vic! I know I can!" _And as her mind flicked back to reality, she felt Mr. Dolan's hand on her neck, saying encouragingly, "Come on, Cornelia, you can do it! C'mon, give a nice push…" Remembering her deceased mate's words of encouragement, she pushed with all her might, stopping briefly to catch her breath. By now, the foal was almost out.

"That's it, pal!" she heard Phoebe exclaim. "Give just one more push and it'll be out! You're almost there." The other jennies were chanting her name.

Realizing all the encouragement being poured on her like rain, Cornelia took in a deep breath and gave a final, great push.

"That's it, girl! You did it!" said one of the humans, though she didn't know which one it was.

Cornelia laid on her side, panting heavily, a smile on her face. _"I did it," _she thought. _"I did it…for Victor. I know he'll be so proud. But the foal…what does it look like?" _She lifted her head and glanced behind her, at her newborn foal. And the moment she saw it, she couldn't believe her own eyes.

The foal was a silver gray like its dam. Its muzzle, the tips of its ears, and its pasterns were steel gray, like Victor's. On the left foreleg, however, was a short, white pastern. Its eyes were sea green like Cornelia's.

Standing up, the new mother went to her foal so she could groom its silver pelt. When the newborn looked up at her, Cornelia said softly, "Welcome to the Earth, my child." She then began to lick her new foal dry, like any mother should.

Lizzie, meanwhile, examined the newborn donkey as the new mother groomed it. "So, Liz," said Kyle coolly. "Is the foal a boy or a girl?" "Hang on a sec, Kyle," Lizzie replied. "I have to see to it first." When she was done looking over the foal, Lizzie stood up and announced, "Congratulations, Cornelia, you've just given birth to a healthy little colt."

"A colt," she whispered as she watched her son struggle to stand up. "I'm so happy."

"Say, Mr. Dolan, what're we gonna name this fellow?" questioned Kyle, pointing to Cornelia's colt. "He has to have a name." "You're right, Kyle," Mr. Dolan replied. "He _does_ need a name. I was thinking of something strong, like Paul or James. But on the other hand, maybe something plain, like Ben or Ryan."

"How about the name Greyer?" suggested Lizzie. "I've always liked that name."

"Maybe not," Mr. Dolan said as he shook his head.

"How about Victor, after his sire?" piped up Kyle.

"I disagree on naming the little guy after his daddy," Lizzie said. "This foal doesn't look much like his sire with the exception of the steel gray places; his mother's genes are much more dominant."

"She's right," said Mr. Dolan to Kyle. "Maybe something…from the mind." By this point, Cornelia's new foal was already nursing from her.

"Wait, I've got one!" Lizzie cried. "How about…Lazarus?"

"Lazarus…that's such an interesting name," Mr. Dolan said in amusement, testing out the sound. "Okay Lizzie, you win. We'll call him Lazarus. Now, let's all get inside the house. Maybe tomorrow, one of the other jennies will have her foal, either Miranda or Phoebe. So far, only Henrietta, Nancy, and now Cornelia have had their foals." And so, the humans left the donkey stable so Cornelia could bond with her newborn son.

"Wow, congrats on the birth of your colt, Cornelia!" Tabitha exclaimed joyously, once Mr. Dolan, Lizzie, and Kyle were gone. Elijah was asleep throughout the whole labor and didn't seemingly pay any attention.

"Are you all right, friend?" Phoebe asked.

Cornelia, with a smile on her lips, turned to the rime gray jenny and said, "Yes, Phoebe, I'm okay now. At first, I didn't think I'd make it, but then…I heard his voice."

"Whose voice?"

"Victor's, of course. He _encouraged_ me to keep going, just when I though all was lost and I was going to die. I heard him in my mind." She glanced down at the newly-named Lazarus, who was fast asleep now. "Even though he's gone, Victor will still watch over me and Lazarus here, from that big green field in the sky." And she added, in a soft voice, "One day, my son, you will grow up to become a legend. I can feel it…"

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**Chapter 1 is over. The next chapter is where Lazarus will meet his playmates!!!**

**Read and Review, please!**


	2. Of Playtime and Prophecy

**Heeeeeeeeere's Chapter 2!!!**

* * *

Almost four days after Lazarus's birth, it was time for him and his dam to go outside, to meet the other donkeys and learn about the world he was in. On the night after Lazarus was born, Miranda gave birth to a filly, which was named Elizabeth by Kyle, partially after Lizzie herself. Two nights after Rita's birth, Phoebe finally had her foal. Like Miranda's, it was also a filly. Mr. Dolan named her Rita, after a high school sweetheart of his when he was younger.

On that particular morning, Kyle came to Cornelia's stall after he'd groomed Elijah. Lazarus was fast asleep in a corner, with Cornelia watching over him. When she heard her stall door open, she turned and saw Kyle standing there.

"Hey, Cornelia," the stable boy greeted as he stepped over to her. "Time for you and Lazarus to go outside now." When she heard him say that, Cornelia nudged her son awake in a gentle way.

"Wake up, Lazarus, my dear," she said to him. "Time to get up. Today's the day we go outside." Moaning softly, the silver colt opened his sea green eyes and struggled to stand up. "We're gonna go outside, Momma?" Lazarus said sleepily as he glanced at his dam. Cornelia nodded her head as Kyle put on her purple halter. Then, he put a small, dark green halter on little Lazarus. At first, he didn't seemingly like it, but in no time, he got used to it as Kyle clipped the lead line on his dam's halter and led her and the foal outside.

Lazarus couldn't believe his own eyes as he stepped out into the warm sunlight. It was so…amazing! Above his head was a large, light blue roof, with puffy white things moving across it. On the ground, there was a lot of that green stuff that his dam had told him was good to eat and roll around in. What was it called again? Oh yeah, grass.

"Momma, what's that blue roof above our heads? And what're those puffy white things there?" Lazarus asked Cornelia when they were put into a pasture. "That, my dear colt, is the sky," said the jenny. "And the puffy white things are called clouds."

Fascinated, Lazarus looked in the direction of the wilderness. There were tall, brown things that rose upward from the ground and covered in some sort of green things that was certainly not grass.

"Those are trees," Cornelia explained to him. "And the green things that grow on the trees are called leaves." When Lazarus heard whistling from one of those trees, Cornelia told him that it was a bird that was making that sound. "Now come along, Lazarus," she told him. "It's time to go and see the others." The young colt knew who the others were: the donkey mares that lived in the stable and their foals.

Cornelia, with Lazarus right behind her, walked over to where Henrietta, Nancy, and Tabitha were chatting whilst the two colts Bernard and Maverick were playing chase nearby. When they heard Cornelia bray to them, the jennies turned in their direction.

"Cornelia, you're out here! Finally!" Tabitha said with happiness as the silver jenny trotted over. "We though you'd never get out. And look! Your foal is here."

"Bernie, my colt," Nancy called to her lanky foal playing with Maverick nearby. "Come over here; there's a new playmate for you and Maverick. And he's your half-brother."

"Maverick, come here!" Henrietta added. "A new foal's here. Come over here to meet him."

"My half-brother's here at last?" Bernard asked in surprise. "Oh, goody!" He and Maverick cantered over to Lazarus.

Lazarus wandered slightly away from his dam, only to see two donkey colts slightly older than him. One was a lanky dark gray wearing a bright blue halter and had a brown and blue, and the other a light gray with tiny white speckles on his hindquarters and wore an orange halter. That foal's eyes were a pale brown.

"Hello," Lazarus greeted them in a somewhat shy way. "How do you do?"

"Hi, little half-brother," Bernard said in reply. "My name's Bernard, but sometimes, I like to be called Bernie. I'm your half-brother. What's your name?"

"My name's Lazarus," the silver donkey colt answered.

"And I'm Maverick," said Henrietta's colt as he puffed out his chest. "_I'm_ the oldest on the High Hopes Ranch."

"Maverick, quit saying that," Bernard said as he rolled his eyes before whispering to Lazarus, "Maverick _always_ says that, and he's proud of it. Just try not to pay attention to him that much; maybe it'll wear off." The silver colt nodded his head at the last statement.

"So Lazarus, want to play tag with us?" Maverick questioned. Lazarus cheerfully replied, "Sure!" And thus, the three young colts began their fun game.

As they played, their dams and Tabitha conversed with each other.

"So, did you see Phoebe's filly yet, Cornelia?" asked Nancy. Cornelia nodded and replied, "She has her mother's hazel eyes, and her father's gray pelt. Rita is a lovely filly; Phoebe and Hugo are proud parents."

"Look over at Elijah," Tabitha sneered, pointing to the small pasture near theirs. In that pasture with the donkey was Hugo. "I can't _believe_ Mr. Dolan bought him. He's _so_ arrogant."

"I think he's just conceited," Miranda said. "I heard it from Hugo." "You did?" gasped Cornelia. "But…how?"

"He told me all about Elijah, for he heard it from him," Miranda answered her. "And here's how it went: Elijah was born twelve springs ago, on a ranch in Arizona. His sire was called Johnson and his first owners knew his birth dam as Wendy. Wendy didn't really know how to care for a foal because she was taken from her dam when she was young, no more than a moon old. As a result, she completely ignored Elijah. The stable hands put the colt with another jenny whose foal was stillborn, but unfortunately for him, she kicked him in the shoulder, thus rejecting him also. The handlers were getting worried. They wanted the colt to grow up with a mother. Elijah had _many_ surrogate mothers, each one either attacking or rejecting him after no more than five days."

"Why would those mares _do_ a wretched thing like that?" Nancy gasped in shock, thinking of her dear little Bernie as he played with Lazarus and Maverick. "Poor Elijah…" Miranda continued with the story.

"Well, after his last surrogate mother, whose name escapes me (though I think it was something like Anna or something), rejected Elijah, the handlers gave up. After knowing what those mares did to him, they sent Elijah to a place called…the stockyard."

All the mares gasped. "What's a stockyard?" cried Nancy.

"I know," Tabitha announced. "It's where animals like donkeys, sheep, horses, goats, and cows go to get sold to different humans. The humans who work there pay little attention to the animals that go there; they just give them food and water and that's it. No love, no happiness; everyone's miserable. And the foals that are born there…they are taken from their dams when they're still young. I know; I was there once. Oh, life was so harsh there."

"Please Tabitha, let me finish," said Miranda. "Anyway, Elijah was at the stockyards for a very long time. He was put into a large pen where a lot of foals are kept. Most of the foals in that pen were born at that stockyard. Elijah didn't know what to do there; no foals were friendly and they didn't want to play at all. They usually had to look forward to the day when the auctions came once every moon. When the auctions came, it was a sign of something good to the foals, because if they were bought, they wouldn't have to stay at that place for the rest of their lives. At first, Elijah thought of them to be crazy, but after going through two auctions without being bid on at all, he _had_ no other choice."

At the last sentence, Cornelia glanced at the pasture where Elijah was being kept with Hugo. He wasn't looking in their direction, fortunately. Without pausing, Miranda continued telling the story.

"For seven moons, Elijah lived at the stockyard. Some donkey foals came and went. Some, however, stayed. Elijah began to think that he wasn't ever going to leave the stockyards. Twice he tried to escape, but he was recaptured again and life went on as if nothing happened. But then, one day, Elijah's luck paid off. A couple bought him and he couldn't be any happier. They took him to their farm and kept him there. They fed him, groomed him, even halter-broke him. They were nice to him; he felt better again. But sadly for him, the happiness didn't last long."

"Why? What happened?" asked Henrietta. Nancy had left the group to watch the colts play.

"A fire broke out nearly two moons after Elijah was sold to the couple," Miranda explained. "No one knew how it started, or who caused it. All they knew was that it killed Elijah's male owner. The widow, to pay off the damages, sold Elijah and he went back to the same stockyard he was at before. He stayed there for yet another six moons before getting sold to a riding school. He was glad that he lived there; he lived there for most of his life. And when a certain man—"

"Mr. Dolan, right?" asked Tabitha. Miranda nodded and continued.

"That's right; when Mr. Dolan came to the riding school, he saw Elijah there, and we _all_ know what happened a few days later."

"Elijah was sold to Mr. Dolan; he lives here now," finished Cornelia. Then, she added, "Who knew Elijah acted like this because he had such a hard life?"

Meanwhile, Lazarus, Bernard, and Maverick were having a race around the pasture. They galloped as fast as they could go, their little hooves kicking up dirt and grass as they went. Nancy watched the trio as they raced. "Be careful, you three," she called out to them.

Lazarus's muscles were pumping as he galloped, determined to get ahead of both Maverick and his half-brother Bernard. "Catch me if you can, Lazarus!" cried Maverick in the lead. The sea green-eyed colt didn't say anything; instead, he used all his strength to run past the light gray colt. Within seconds, the silver colt passed Maverick.

At that moment, Lazarus was confident with himself and the world. It felt like he could run forever; he could jump the pasture's fence and run into the open wilderness…

But when he turned towards the wide fields outside the safe pasture, a movement caught his eye. Curious, Lazarus slowed down and trotted to the fence. Noticing his oddity, Bernard and Maverick followed him. "What d'ya see, half-brother?" asked Bernard. Lazarus pointed with his nose and said in reply, "Look out there." The three looked out towards the wilderness and they all gasped softly at what they saw.

It was a herd of horses that Lazarus had spotted. At the lead was a bay stallion with a blaze sloping down his face and a white stocking on his left foreleg. Close to the bay was a perlino mare. She had a star on her face and that was it. No other white marking was on her. Beside her was a yearling colt, a palomino to be exact. Asides from a snip on his nose, there wasn't any other white on him.

And the herd was coming towards them.

The colts began to bray and squeal with awe and surprise. Hearing their calls, the jennies walked over to them.

"Lazarus, what is it?" Cornelia asked her son.

"Horses!" the silver colt cheered, pointing to the herd. In silent awe, the five jennies and the three colts watched as the herd drew closer until they were almost six feet away. The donkeys were silent, that is, until Tabitha spoke.

"Equines!" she said in a high voice. "Who is your leader?"

"I am," said the bay, marching forward. "My name is Running Moose, Leader of the Sage Herd. My mate is Water Rose and my son is known as Great Sun. You are donkeys and are owned by humans, am I correct?" He stared at all eight of them, especially the colts.

"Yes," said Cornelia. "But what're you and your herd doing here, Running Moose of the Sage Herd?"

"We are here because of a very old yet sacred Prophecy among us equines," Running Moose announced. "You may not know it, but someone of your kind is destined to live among us wild equines, or mustangs as your humans call us."

"What?" Henrietta gasped, her jaw dropping. "But…how can this be?"

"It has been taught to each generation of horses," Running Moose continued. "Before my sire, Strong Oak, passed off into the afterlife, he told me this Prophecy. He said, 'And lo, there shall be a creature similar to us but different in many ways who will live, eat, and run among us. A donkey. The humans have given him a name, but a different herd will rename him again: Gray Hoof.' It was an odd thing at first, but since I've seen you up close…" He looked at each donkey again and added, "I'm starting to believe it could be true."

Water Rose walked forward and said, "Running Moose may've heard of this Prophecy, but I, on the other hand, was born to the leaders of the Pine Herd. My sire never told me of this Prophecy." She was silent for a few moments before she turned to Lazarus. "Young one," she said. "What's your name?"

"They call me Lazarus," the colt simply said.

"Okay Lazarus, have you paid attention to what Running Moose said?" Water Rose asked. She got a nod as her answer.

"Good." Water Rose turned and whispered in Running Moose's ear. He nodded his head and finally announced, "Well, we best get the herd moving. We have to keep moving onward. It's our way of life." He turned to the other mares and foals in the herd, whinnied a command, and as the herd moved away, Running Moose glanced at the donkeys and said, "Never forget what I'd just said to you, for one day, the Prophecy might come true." Then, he and Water Rose followed just behind the rest of the Sage Herd, leaving the five jennies and the three colts in a stupor.

Once the Sage Herd was gone, Cornelia said softly, "Okay foals, I think that's enough excitement for one day."

* * *

**What'll happen in Chapter 3? Stay tuned!**


	3. The Saddlebag Lesson

Two days after the encounter with the mustang herd, Miranda's foal Elizabeth, who was actually left in the care of Phoebe when Lazarus was outside for the first time, was brought outside, along with Phoebe and Rita. Elizabeth had her dam's brown eyes and her sire's dull gray pelt (her sire, like Lazarus and Bernard, was Victor as well).

Lazarus, Bernard, and Maverick were playing tag with each other when the fillies were brought into the donkeys' pasture. They stood watching the colts and whispering to each other.

"Look Rita, some other foals," Elizabeth whispered. She was wearing a hot pink halter.

"Are they friendly?" pondered Rita. She wore a lime green halter.

"Dunno," Elizabeth shrugged. "I know! Let's go and say hello to them." She trotted towards the trio.

Lazarus was the first to spot the fillies. He watched them approach as Bernard pretended to kick Maverick. With both his half-brother and Maverick distracted, the sea green-eyed colt went up to greet them.

"Hello," he said politely. "My name's Lazarus. Who are you?"

"I'm Rita!" the rime gray filly replied cheerfully as she puffed out her chest.

"And I'm Elizabeth," added the dull gray one with the hot pink halter. "Are you my half-brother?"

"Err...maybe…" Lazarus said, doubtful. "Err…I dunno…I'm not sure at all."

"Well, you _have_ to be," Elizabeth said. "My dam says that my sire had a steel gray muzzle, and you have that, don't you?"

"Yes."

"Well then, that means you _are_ my half-brother. And my dam also says that I have another half-brother here as well. Where is he? I want to say hello to him." She looked around suspiciously.

"You mean Bernard? Oh, why, he's over there playing with Maverick." Lazarus pointed to the two colts with his nose. "Maverick is Henrietta's colt."

"My dam says that I have a half-brother named Maverick," Rita said. "Is it really him?"

Lazarus nodded and Rita cantered off to greet her recently found half-brother. Elizabeth went over to greet Bernard, with Lazarus close behind.

When Bernard and Maverick saw the two fillies approach them, they stopped their little game and stared at them. One filly had a lime green halter and the other had a hot pink halter. The one with the hot pink halter went over to Bernard and the one with the lime green halter trotted up to Maverick.

"Hello," Elizabeth said to Bernard. "My name's Elizabeth, but you can call me Eliza for short. Who are you?"

"Bernard, but you can call me Bernie for short," the lanky colt said in reply.

"Well, Bernie, it just so happens that you're my half-brother," Elizabeth said.

"I have…a half-sister?" The filly nodded in response.

"Whoa…I didn't know that! Pleased to meet you, half-sister."

Meanwhile, Rita was greeting her half-brother, Maverick. To her displeasure, Maverick was extremely confused. "So…are you saying that _you_ are my half-sister?" the colt asked puzzled. Rita rolled her eyes. "For the fifth time, _yes_, I'm your half-sister. We both have the same sire, but our dams are different. So, we are half-siblings. Do you understand?"

"Well, not really," Maverick sheepishly replied. Rita sighed in disbelief.

Lazarus, meanwhile, was watching the fillies meet their half-brothers. He smiled, for he had more playmates as well as new friends. He glanced over to his dam, who was talking with the other mares, before gazing back at the other foals. He was so happy that he began to run and kick up his heels in joy. But as he ran, someone whistled to him. He turned to the fence and smiled again.

It was Lizzie, standing near the gate. "Come here, Lazarus," she crooned. "Come here, boy." _"Maybe she wants to pet me,"_ Lazarus thought to himself as he trotted over. He was having a jolly day so far; nothing could spoil it. He trotted up to the stable girl, but instead of being petted, Lizzie snapped a lead to his halter. The colt stared at her in a puzzled way. "What is this?" he wanted to say. Lizzie opened the gate, tugged lightly on the halter, and led him away.

She led Lazarus past the horse stable, where he saw Kyle put a saddle on a chestnut pinto. He brayed to the stable boy, but was disappointed when Kyle just waved to Lizzie. He didn't help at all.

Lizzie took Lazarus to a circular pen, where she placed him in and left. The colt began to run around the pen in confusion, thinking that he might get sold to someone. However, Lizzie came back with a saddlebag. She put it on his back and stepped back.

"Come to me, Lazarus!" she called encouragingly. "Come here!" She made more encouraging sounds.

Puzzled, Lazarus took a couple of steps before he stared at the saddlebag. It was a burnt orange color and there was something inside it. He used his muzzle to try and open one of the saddlebags.

"No, Lazarus; don't do that!" shouted Lizzie. "Just come to me!" She clapped her hands and continued making encouraging sounds. The donkey colt gave up trying to find out what was in the saddlebags and assumed that if he went to Lizzie, she might take off these awfully heavy things. He trotted up to the young woman and she smiled.

"Good job, Lazarus," she said, but she didn't take off the saddlebags.

Lazarus's ears perked up with confidence. Perhaps if he just followed Lizzie's orders, she'll tell him he did a good job and would take off the saddlebags.

Lizzie took the lead and tugged lightly on it. "Follow me, Lazarus," she said. "Come on, boy." She started walking. Eagerly, the silver donkey colt followed, his tail wagging and his sea green eyes brimming with hope that the saddlebags would soon come off. Around and around the human and the foal went, Lizzie's intention to teach Lazarus how to get used to a saddlebag and Lazarus's intention to have it soon taken off.

After a few minutes of walking, Lizzie turned to the colt and smiled. "Good job, Lazarus! You're doing great." Lazarus felt good about himself before she gave him a bit of hay. That was even better. But Lizzie wasn't done with him, yet. She still wanted him to learn to get used to the saddlebags. Lazarus didn't mind anymore, now that Lizzie was going to feed him. He would obey her and get fed hay in reward for a good job.

The saddlebag training lasted for ten more minutes. They did walking and standing exercises. Even though Lazarus didn't like the weight of the saddlebag on his back, he was thrilled that Lizzie was giving him rewards for doing a good job. But when the ten minutes were up, Lizzie finally took the saddlebag off and led him back to the donkeys in the other pasture. There, she unhooked his halter and put the lead on Bernard. At first, the lanky colt panicked, but when he heard Lazarus give him a bray of assurance, he relaxed a little as he was led away.

One by one, Lizzie taught Bernard, Rita, Maverick, and Elizabeth how to get used to a saddlebag. It was uncomfortable to them at first, but then, they easily got used to it as Lizzie walked them around the circular pen. They arched their heads and their tails wagged behind them like banners in a parade. When they were done, they talked excitedly to each other how easy it seemed and wanted to do it again soon. They could carry saddlebags all day without a flake of hay.

Lazarus watched his excited friends talk about the lesson in silence. The saddlebag lesson wasn't exciting to him at all. He would only carry it if he were hungry.

Deciding to get their thoughts away from lessons and saddlebags, Lazarus cantered over to Rita. "Hey, Rita, do you want to have a race?" he asked. It worked like a charm, for the filly turned and nodded her head, saying, "Sure…okay, let's do it!" In no time, Rita and Lazarus were running around the pasture, hearing the cheers and hollers from Maverick, Bernard, and Elizabeth.

Lazarus won the first race and challenged Bernard to race him. The silver gray colt thought of it to be easy, for he outran his half-brother by two feet. He raced Maverick next, then Elizabeth, almost being nearly beaten by a nose hadn't he pushed harder. And finally, the "finals" came. Lazarus, being the best runner, had to race all of his previous challengers, much to his delight. He and Rita ended up tying in the end.

Lazarus, tired yet confident of his running, was finally able to make his siblings not care much about the saddlebag lesson anymore. He reared up and cantered around just to cool off. Without anything better to do, the rest of the foals followed. But when they started trotting, Bernard, Elizabeth, Maverick, and Rita were talking about the saddlebag lesson, much to Lazarus's dismay.

"I liked that lesson," said Bernard. "I even liked it when Lizzie gave me some hay as a treat."

"Me too," agreed Rita.

"So did I!" exclaimed Maverick.

"What'd you like about the saddlebag lesson, Lazarus?" asked Elizabeth, who was behind her silver half-brother. The colt rolled his eyes and said in reply, "You know, Eliza; I don't really care about that lesson, nor did I like it. But I only liked it when I was fed hay, which made the lesson more bearable. I will carry saddlebags as long as I'm hungry." He nodded his head in defiance.

The foals' eyes widened with interest. Never before had Lazarus become somewhat rebellious of the humans. Rita gasped with awe, "Lazarus, you can't be serious…can you?"

Lazarus said nothing in reply. He just kept trotting.

Meanwhile, the foals' mothers were talking to each other as they looked at the five foals. Nancy was worried for Cornelia's colt Lazarus.

"Cornelia dear, what if the words of that mustang were true?" she asked. "What if the Prophecy involves your foal?"

"Nancy, the mustang Running Moose never said anything about my foal," Cornelia replied, rolling her eyes. "He said it might involve a donkey foal; he was never specific about who the donkey foal was. All he said was that the colt was to be renamed 'Gray Hoof.' Besides, there's a chance the Prophecy might never come true." She shook her mane and brayed to Lazarus. "Come here, my colt. It's almost time to head in."

"You too, Maverick! It's nearly time to head inside," Henrietta called, as one by one, the rest of the jennies brayed to each of their individual foals. The foals, hearing their mothers call to them, instinctively rushed to them. But as Lizzie and Kyle came to the gate, they didn't know of the horror that was to change everything…


	4. The River Herd

**I've decided to make Chapter 4 based around the River Herd, the herd that eventually (CAN'T TELL YOU WHAT HAPPENS CUZ IT'LL SPOIL DE GOODNESS). The next chapter will focus on Lazarus and his friends and family, but it's not going to be pretty...**

**Now, on with Chapter 4!!**

* * *

Around the time Lazarus the donkey foal was saying hello to his half-sister Elizabeth and Rita, a herd of mustangs was galloping towards a lake nearly one hundred and ten miles northeast of the High Hopes Ranch. This wasn't the Sage Herd, the same one the donkey colt and his friends had met the day before. Oh, no…this was a different herd, and its name was the River Herd.

The River Herd consisted of fourteen horses. Eight were adults and six were foals. The River Herd's leader was a silver buckskin stallion called Lake Eyes, named for his deep blue eyes. He had two stockings on his legs, one on his left foreleg and the other on his left hind leg. Lake Eyes also had a star on his face. His mate and the lead mare of the River Herd was a Morgan horse called Red Arrow. She was a liver chestnut with a stripe sloping down her face, and socks on all but the left foreleg. Her eyes were dark green. Despite being a Morgan horse, Red Arrow was born in the great wilderness. Red Arrow and Lake Eyes had a foal, a silver blood bay colt called Flame Gust.

The other six adults in the herd were known as Spotted Cloud, a bay pintaloosa with hazel eyes, Desert Wind, a red dun roan sabino, Green Fern, a pretty dunalino with eyes green as a fern, Prairie Voice, a zebra dun who came from another herd, Flying Dove, a cremello, and finally, a Quarter horse gelding named Crow Scratch, a grulla. Crow Scratch was the only horse in the River Herd to have lived around humans most of his life.

As the River Herd approached the lake, Lake Eyes urged his herd to slow down. "We're here," he said aloud. Hearing this, the mares slowed to a stop in relief. They'd been moving for two days without much water, and they were very concerned about their foals. Lake Eyes wandered a little away from the mares to check for any signs of danger.

"At long last, we reach water," Spotted Cloud breathed as she glanced down at her colt Leaping Puma. He was a silver bay pintaloosa with her hazel eyes.

"I need to drink," Desert Wind announced as her silver dunskin colt, Gold Snake, leaned his head against her side. "I have not felt more than a mere drop of water on my tongue for nearly two days."

"We _all_ need to drink, Desert Wind," Red Arrow said as she came up to her with her colt Flame Gust crowding her side.

"Go on ahead, everyone," Lake Eyes announced after he checked to make sure the coast was clear. "Drink from the lake. There is no danger." Eagerly, the horses clattered over to the lake and drank from it, their tails swishing.

Crow Scratch was the first horse in the River Herd to finish up drinking. He wandered away from his herd mates to reflect on what had happened in his life, starting with his foal-hood.

* * *

Back then, Crow Scratch was given a name that would be very exotic to the horses: Theodore. His dam was a lovely bay known as Clarissa. He never knew who his sire was. Although his dam loved him and he'd gotten along very well with the other horses on the ranch, he could sense that the humans weren't pleased with him. Ever since his dam Clarissa conceived him, they'd been expecting a filly. But they got him instead.

"What a wild little thing!" Clarissa's handler shouted when Crow Scratch had nipped him on the arm.

"It's a devil," hissed the stable boy when the colt panicked during a storm one evening.

"He _must_ be sold," Clarissa's owner announced after seeing the grulla run about and kick. "He's nothing but a wild beast that needs to be broken in and subdued." And when he was four moons old, he was sent away.

Ten summers passed since Crow Scratch was taken away from his dam. He was trained to get used to a saddle as well as a person on his back and wear a bridle in his mouth, and had been sold to a great number of humans, but none could handle his wild behavior, so he didn't stay with one for long. Another thing that was going on was that he'd been given many names: "Ajax," "Mikey," "Humphrey," "Louis," "Romeo," and many others. Not many of the horses he lived with didn't appreciate his erratic behavior.

"You're not a mustang, Ajax, you're a Quarter horse, like the rest of us," a chestnut mare told him sternly after he wolfed down his oats hungrily one day. "You were born in the humans' place, and your destiny is to serve them."

"Stop acting like a restless foal, Romeo," a gruff-looking gray stallion snapped at him. "It's just an irritation to all of us and the humans."

"Keep silent, stupid gelding!" a cocky chestnut roan hissed at him one day. "I'm _trying_ to practice my trotting for the riding class this week."

On the evening of his tenth summer, Crow Scratch was looking up at the starry sky, praying that he could be rid of these humans and be free. "I wish I could run forever," he murmured softly. "I wish there were no fences keeping me in. I wish I didn't have to wear a stupid saddle and bridle. And I wish I didn't have to obey the humans anymore. I just want to be free." On that night, fate seemed to be on the gelding's side.

A fire broke out later that night. Some irresponsible human dropped his cigarette onto a haystack, which became a blazing inferno within seconds. All the horses in the adjacent stable were let out by their handlers. But in all the panic and confusion, Crow Scratch raced off into the wilderness, never to return.

He'd spent his first year in the wilderness with a bachelor herd. He had his halter on at that time, and when the bachelors saw him, one of them was able to take the halter off for him, the last trace of human, and was welcomed in immediately. At that time, his pre-official name was "Nester," which he thought of to be the stupidest name he'd ever received. Nevertheless, he had to wear it like a saddle and bridle. During his time in that bachelor herd, the four young stallions who were with him fully accepted his wild personality. They did mock-battles, had long runs through open fields, and chased one another.

After the first year had gone by, Crow Scratch left the bachelor herd. He wandered for many days and nights, looking for a herd that could accept him. So far, he had no success. But then, one day, fate came to him like a cougar. Literally.

He was wandering in the middle of nowhere and following the faint scent of what he guessed was a horse herd. At this time, he was almost eleven summers old. To the wild horses, eleven was a pretty old age for a horse to be wandering about and looking for a herd to join. But Crow Scratch didn't care.

Unknown to him, a cougar was watching the grulla from the shadows. To the cougar, Crow Scratch was a moving meal, for it hadn't eaten for a few days. It waited until the gelding was close to him before it sprang.

However, the grulla saw the attack and ran with the cougar in hot pursuit. Each time he looked behind him, Crow Scratch thought that the beast was getting closer. After a few more minutes of running, Crow Scratch wanted to give up, but suddenly, a golden blur slammed into the cougar. Startled, the grulla gelding skidded to a halt and saw that the golden blur was the leader of the River Herd, Lake Eyes. In amazement, he watched as the silver buckskin stallion fought the cougar off.

Once the cougar was gone, the silver buckskin turned to the grulla and asked, "Are you all right?"

"Yes, I am," the gelding told him. "Thanks for helping me."

The silver buckskin stallion studied Crow Scratch for a moment before he said, "You're a gelding, aren't you?"

"Yes," the grulla had replied. "I'm a gelding. I was born to humans, but I escaped from them a year ago and…I'm looking for a herd."

"Well then, you can come with me," the stallion offered. "My name is Lake Eyes and I'm the leader of the River Herd; they aren't too far from here. Who are you?"

"I'm…Nester," the grulla had told him, grimacing at his ridiculous name.

"Ah, you have a name that was given to you by the humans," Lake Eyes observed. "Nester…it may sound unique, but it won't do. If you're going to live with my herd, then you're going to have to adopt a new name." The grulla perked up at this, for he'd be rid of his stupid name for good. Then, he'd feel like a true wild horse for the first time. "Okay then, that'll do. What kind of names are you suggesting for me, Lake Eyes?"

"Only one: Crow Scratch. That's the only name I can think of for you. How does that sound?"

"That is a good name for me, Lake Eyes," the newly-named Crow Scratch said to the silver buckskin. And from that day, the grulla had been part of the River Herd.

* * *

Once the mares had stopped drinking, their foals ventured off from their dams to play with one another.

"Who wants to race me?" the leaders' colt Flame Gust challenged. He had two white pasterns on his back legs and deep blue eyes like his father's.

"I will!" Gold Snake announced. He had a white blaze sloping down his face and a sock on his right foreleg as well as a pastern on his left hind leg. "I'll race you, Flame Gust."

"So will I!" exclaimed a palomino filly named Yellow Lily, the foal of Flying Dove. She had three white pasterns on all but the left hind leg.

"Not me," said a filly name Flower Song. "I don't want to race today." She was the filly of Prairie Voice, but Lake Eyes wasn't her sire. Flower Song was a red dun with a star and snip on her face. She also had two stockings on her forelegs and a sock on her right hind leg. Her eyes were bright blue.

"I'm not going to race, either," agreed Leaping Puma. He had a white face like his dam's and socks on all four legs. "I'll play with Flower Song." Another foal, a dunalino filly named Playful Cricket, agreed with him. Playful Cricket had a white sock on her right hind leg and that was it. She also had her dam's fern green eyes.

"Okay then, you three can watch the race!" Flame Gust suggested. "Cheer for us as we run and congra…congratu…tell the winner at the end of the race that he or she has done a good job running."

"Fine. Whatever you say. Okay, Flame Gust," the three foals murmured as they watched Flame Gust, Yellow Lily, and Gold Snake prepare to start the race. The three _really_ wanted to play a game like chase or hide-and-search. But they had no choice but to listen to the leaders' colt and obey him. He was like the leader of the River Herd foals.

"Who wants to start the race for us?" Yellow Lily piped up.

The three looked at one another before Leaping Puma stepped forward, saying with a sigh, "I will."

"Good for you, Leaping Puma!" Flame Gust said to him with a smile. "I knew you'd step up."

"Thanks for helping out, Leaping Puma," Yellow Lily added merrily. "We can always count on you."

"Okay, okay; no need to get excited," Leaping Puma told them. He strode up alongside Flame Gust and announced, "Get ready…on your mark…get set…wait for it…_go_!" At that instant, the three foals bolted away, their muscles pumping as they moved.

* * *

As the foals raced, the River Herd's mares conversed with one another as Lake Eyes kept watch for anything that could give way to danger. One danger to the herd, asides from cougars and humans, was the Tornado Herd, a harsh-looking herd consisting of eleven horses. The herd's leader was known as Powerful Wolf, a black overo who didn't have the markings of a true leader. Nevertheless, Powerful Wolf's sire appointed him as the leader because he was his favorite. Powerful Wolf's mate and the lead mare was a perlino named Lavender Scent. She was a conceited mare who gave the other Tornado Herd mares a very hard time. Life in the Tornado Herd was particularly dysfunctional due to a leader who didn't act like a true leader and a lead mare who didn't give a horsefly about others' needs.

"Have you heard about that one humans' place?" asked Desert Wind.

"Which one?" Red Arrow piped up.

"Why, it was known as the 'D.C. Ranch,'" Desert Wind replied, feeling unsure about herself. "I heard from a hawk that there's been a kidnapping of these creatures called donkeys."

"Donkeys?" Spotted Cloud asked.

"Yes, donkeys," Desert Wind continued. "There were these humans in black and they took the offspring of the donkeys there. Then, the humans fled with the donkeys' offspring in some sort of large, square thing with circles on it."

"A large square thing with circles on it? That's odd," Red Arrow mused.

"I'll tell you, Leader Red Arrow; the humans these days are very mysterious," Prairie Voice announced. "Their ways with life are changing dramatically. When I was a filly, I'd listen to tales of what the humans were like many summers ago. They were so simple back then. Now look at them!" The zebra dun mare gestured towards the sky, and the others looked up to see a large, bird-like thing with straight gray wings, colored with blue, red, and orange fly over them, thousands of feet off the ground. It made a sound as it flew in the sky, a half-humming, half-buzzing sound.

"Do you see that?" Prairie Voice observed, slightly disgusted. "There's no doubt the humans created that. A bird that flies, yet it doesn't speak, _or_ have feelings! The birds told me that humans control its every doing, yet they don't know how. Oh, the humans. They're hard to understand."

"She's right," Spotted Cloud said, nodding her head. "Humans _are_ becoming more difficult to understand. I'm glad I wasn't born among them."

"Crow Scratch knows about humans, though," Flying Dove stated, glancing to the grulla who was grazing not too far away from here. "He was born to a mare that was kept by humans, and he's lived with them for most of his life."

A sudden whinny from Lake Eyes brought the mares out of their conversation. Looking at her mate, Red Arrow trotted up to him and asked, "Lake Eyes, what did you see? Is it danger? Is it the Tornado Herd?"

"No, my dear," Lake Eyes said with a smile. "It's the Willow Herd, and they're coming this way." The liver chestnut mare's green eyes widened at this. The Willow Herd was an ally of the River Herd; they helped one another through hard times. Ironically, the leader of the herd, Storm Leaf, a bay dun roan, was the half-brother of Lake Eyes himself.

"Good heavens, the Willow Herd!" Red Arrow whispered under her breath as she cantered over to the other mares.

"What is it, Leader Red Arrow?" Green Fern questioned. "What's the matter?"

"The Willow Herd is coming this way!" Red Arrow exclaimed. "Call to your foals, mares. I want them to be here when the herd comes." Within a few minutes, every foal in the herd was besides their dams. They stood attentively as the Willow Herd came into view. At the lead was Storm Leaf. Next to him was a black tobiano named Whispering Swan, Storm Leaf's mate, and cantering behind the two was a bay roan tobiano foal. Her name was Painted Sky and she was the filly of Storm Leaf and Whispering Swan.

"It's my uncle Storm Leaf!" Flame Gust whispered with joy to the other foals. "He's probably here to visit my sire, dam, _and_ me."

"I can't wait to see the other foals in the Willow Herd," Yellow Lily added. "I want to play with them."

"Everyone ready," Lake Eyes announced as the Willow Herd drew closer. "Here they come!"

The Willow Herd stopped only a few feet away from where Lake Eyes was standing. Upon halting, the bay dun roan known as Storm Leaf stepped forward. He had a blaze sloping down his face, two stockings on his legs (one on the right hind leg and the other on the right foreleg), and a sock on his left foreleg. Like his half-brother, Storm Leaf had deep blue eyes.

"Greetings, half-brother," Lake Eyes said to the bay dun roan. "It's nice to see you again."

"It's nice to see you as well, my half-brother," Storm Leaf said with a smile. "I'm filled with joy to announce that the Willow Herd has two new additions, asides from my filly Painted Sky." He gestured to a black mare with a white face. Next to her was a blue roan colt with a stocking on his right foreleg and a stripe down his face.

"This is my colt, Rising Fog," the black mare, Speaking Mist, announced. "He's very fast for his age, almost as fast as the wind on a stormy night. I can feel that he'll be the fastest mustang of the wild." As she spoke, another mare of Storm Leaf's walked alongside the black, a chestnut. Her foal, a bay roan colt, peered out behind her legs.

"Come on, my little colt; don't be shy," the chestnut whispered to him. Turning to the River Herd mares, she explained in a calm tone, "Please apologize, for my new colt Blazing Comet is very shy when it comes to seeing new horses."

"That's all right," Flame Gust said as he trotted over to Blazing Comet.

"Flame Gust," Red Arrow called to her colt sternly. "Don't—"

"Be not alarmed, Leader Red Arrow of the River Herd," the chestnut, Orange Aspen, assured the Morgan horse. "Just as long as your colt doesn't hurt mine, everything will be fine."

* * *

The day slowly dragged on as the horses of the River Herd socialized with those in the Willow Herd. The foals played with one another, the mares conversed, and close by, the two half-siblings kept watch for anything unusual. During that time, they talked.

"Have you seen the Tornado Herd lately, half-brother?" Lake Eyes questioned the bay dun roan, narrowing his deep blue eyes to the horizon that lay ahead of him. "Apparently not," Storm Leaf replied, dipping his head. "The last time my mares and I saw the Tornado Herd was almost four moons ago. But they didn't stop near us or anything, they just migrated on. By the way, there aren't any yearlings in your herd. What happened?" In the Willow Herd, there were only three yearlings.

"We didn't have any foals last year, Storm Leaf," Lake Eyes sighed. "The reason was because we heard rumors that Powerful Wolf was going to bring severe harm to any foals we might plan on having. After all, the ones who were two-summers-old were ready to leave us. It was a pain to see them go, and it was hard because there weren't any foals for the mares to tend to. When we found out the rumors were not true, the mares had a hard time to forgive me. But since they have foals now, they've forgiven me. Anyway, the reason I asked you if you've seen the Tornado Herd was because we haven't seen them for almost _eight moons_."

"Eight moons!" Storm Leaf gasped. "I must agree with you. That's a _very_ long time."

"I know it is," Lake Eyes sighed again. "I wonder what the Tornado Herd is up to."

"Maybe they're up to no good, like always. You _know_ that Powerful Wolf and Lavender Scent may not have the markings of true leaders like us, but they're fierce fighters."

* * *

Unbeknownst to them, a stallion was watching from a nearby grove of pine trees, his brown eyes filled with jealousy. Next to him was the lead mare of his herd, her blue eyes narrowed at the silver buckskin.

"There they are," the mare whispered, glancing over to the stallion. "They're distracted, aren't they?"

The stallion, a black overo, nodded. "They're stupid as buffalo," he said quietly. "Look at them. They can't even smell us, and we're right under their nostrils." He snickered in a devious way as he said the last statement.

"That's because we're _downwind_ of them, Powerful Wolf," the mare sighed, rolling her eyes. "You chose this place for us to hide in because we'd be out of their scent range, remember?"

"Indeed I did," Powerful Wolf grinned. "And soon, the River Herd will be under my rule. I just need to get to that shell-head of a leader and take him by surprise."

"You can just jump out of here when he's closest to you," the mare, Lavender Scent, sighed. She usually thought of her mate to be as dumb as a fish. Why he was able to rule over his herd, the Tornado Herd, without any problems, was a mystery to her. When it came to fighting others, she was the brains of the two. "Just be ready when I tell you."

* * *

"Oh Flame Gust, where are you?" Flower Song called out as she scanned the tall grass in front of her. "Hear my call, Flame Gust! I'd like to say something to you!" _"Where is that crazy colt?"_ she thought to herself as her bright blue eyes watched the grass for any unsuspecting movement. _"I want to race him."_

Unknown to her, Flame Gust, Blazing Comet, Rising Fog, and Gold Snake were hiding in the tall grass, snickering to themselves. "This is a cool place to hide, Flame Gust," Gold Snake told the blood bay colt with a smile. "You're one intelligent colt." "Thanks," Flame Gust whispered back. "Besides, Flower Song will _never_ find me here."

"Hush, keep quiet," Blazing Comet hissed. "Don't let her find you." The colts huddled closer and kept quiet until they heard hoof beats growing quieter. After a long moment, they cautiously stood up. "That was a close one," Flame Gust said with a smile.

As the colts stayed in the tall grass, the lead mares of the River Herd and the Willow Herd talked to each other.

"How doth your position as lead mare make thou feel, Red Arrow?" Whispering Swan asked the liver chestnut mare.

"I think of it to be very…fine," Red Arrow admitted simply, although she sometimes thought of her rank in the River Herd as a challenge. Having to look after five mares and their foals as well as one gelding was a very big responsibility!

"Look…there's our mates," Whispering Swan pointed out, gesturing to the silver buckskin and the bay dun roan as they began to return to their own herds.

"Looks like they haven't spotted any danger at all," Red Arrow sighed, feeling somewhat relieved as she watched her mate walk past a grove of pine trees. But that was when the attack came.

* * *

"Okay, Powerful Wolf; this is it," Lavender Scent whispered to the black overo as she saw the silver buckskin stallion pass them. "Wait until I tell you. Get ready…"

"I'll go right now!" Powerful Wolf said in a loud whisper. "I want the River Herd to be mine as soon as possible! This is for you, my mate!" Before the perlino could do anything, the black overo launched himself out of the grove of pine trees and straight at his rival_. "That foolish stallion!"_ Lavender Scent thought to herself. _"He'll never win __that__ way!"_

* * *

Lake Eyes saw the attack before he was hit.

He and his half-brother Storm Leaf had just arrived back at where their herds were. They were about to get their mares and part ways with one another when a horse lunged at him. It was not just any horse, it was a black overo.

"Powerful Wolf!" Lake Eyes exclaimed in fury. As his rival came closer to him, the silver buckskin stallion cunningly jumped out of the way, which caused the black overo to stumble. Quickly getting back on his hooves, Powerful Wolf looked at Lake Eyes with malice.

"Well, well, if it isn't Lake Eyes," he sneered. "We meet again after all these moons."

"Indeed," Lake Eyes agreed, narrowing his deep blue eyes. The mares of both the Willow Herd and the River Herd watched in fear and interest as Powerful Wolf continued.

"I've been training myself for this moment, and I will not give up," he growled. "I will have your herd as well as the Willow Herd. I will become the greatest stallion in the wilderness!"

The black overo and the silver buckskin reared up and slashed and bit at one another with their hooves and teeth. As they fought, Lavender Scent rushed at the mares and their foals and forced them all to follow her. The foals reluctantly began walking in the direction the perlino was forcing them in, but the mares refused to go, calling out their foals' names in the process.

"Powerful Wolf will keep all you mares, whether you like it or not," the perlino hissed gleefully. "I'm _sure_ you'll like your new lives in the Tornado Herd, as long as you obey him."

"Get away from us, you tumbleweed!" Red Arrow whinnied, preparing to rear up. "You and your mate _will not_ have any of us!" "You are a horrible excuse for a lead mare," Whispering Swan added. "Equus frowns upon you as he watches you lead the mares of the Tornado Herd."

"If you don't wish to come with me to my herd peacefully, then I'll take you to my herd _by force_!" Lavender Scent neighed. "Have at thee, rebellious mares!"

The perlino mare and the liver chestnut mare, like their mates, attacked each other. Red Arrow was fighting to keep her place as lead mare in her herd, and Lavender Scent was fighting to get this mare to obey her. With the perlino distracted, Whispering Swan urged all the mares and their foals to follow her. She would take them to a safe place, away from all the fighting.

"Mother, what's happening?" Flame Gust called out to Red Arrow as she fought Lavender Scent.

"There's no time, little colt," Whispering Swan told him. "You must come with me; I'll take all of you to safety. You can stay there until the fighting is over." And without another thought, the black tobiano led the mares and their foals away.

* * *

Powerful Wolf was beginning to show signs of tiring, and only Storm Leaf saw that. He wouldn't tell his half-brother though, because if he did, then Lake Eyes would make an attempt to drive him off, and the black overo would come back to finish him off. No, he'd wait until they circled each other again, and _then_ would he make his move.

_"I must help my half-sibling,"_ Storm Leaf thought as he watched Lake Eyes bite Powerful Wolf's shoulder for the umpteenth time. _"He is the only family member I know out here."_

The bay dun roan's opportunity came when the two fighting stallions finally withdrew and circled one another three, four, five times.

"Ready to give up, Lake Eyes?" Powerful Wolf sneered.

"Only when you shall give up, villain," Lake Eyes retorted. "A true leader fights to the end."

Powerful Wolf's brown eyes sparkled with sadistic glee. "So shall it be." He reared up to strike the silver buckskin, but at that same time, Storm Leaf rushed at him and shoved hard. The black overo went tumbling over, alarmed at this sudden move. Seeing his rival go down, Lake Eyes reared up and slammed his hooves right near Powerful Wolf's neck.

Close by, Lavender Scent had backed up from Red Arrow. The perlino had charged at the liver chestnut and was ready to charge once again when she saw the bay dun roan stallion knock her mate over.

"My mate has fallen!" Lavender Scent whispered to herself. Then, she turned to glare at Red Arrow, who was ready to bite her if she got close to her again. Blood was oozing slowly from a small gash on her left side and there were some scratches on her withers.

"Are you going to mock me or are you finishéd?" Red Arrow snapped.

"You should be _very_ fortunate that I am finishéd with you for now, Red Arrow," Lavender Scent replied. And before the liver chestnut mare could say anything, the perlino had rushed to her mate.

"Leave my mate alone!" Lavender Scent cried out as she approached Powerful Wolf. Lowering her head, the perlino tenderly asked him, "Oh, my heart's treasure…are you all right?"

"Yes, I am," Powerful Wolf sighed, staggering back up on his hooves. "We must get back to the herd before someone else does. I believe that the sun is beginning to set, is it not?"

"Do not fear, my mate. The sun won't set for a long while. But we shall go back to our herd, if you insist upon it." Then, Lavender Scent turned to face Lake Eyes, narrowing her eyes. She said, in a dark voice, "Listen to my voice, Lake Eyes of the River Herd: the fight is done for today, but Powerful Wolf and I are not finishéd with any of you. We shall meet again, but not anytime soon. But one day, we will take over the River Herd and thou will be punishéd!" With that settled, the perlino and the black overo raced off without looking back.

When they were gone, Red Arrow came up to her mate. "Are you all right, Lake Eyes?" she asked.

"Yes, Red Arrow; I'm fine," he replied. "But we must look for the others. Storm Leaf, which way did your mate Whispering Swan go with the mares?"

"I didn't see her, unfortunately," the bay dun roan answered. "I was too distracted by the fight. But I can either find her scent or one of my mares and track them down that way. We'll get to our mares and foals that way." He bent his head close to the ground, sniffing for any familiar scents of his mares.

* * *

Whispering Swan led the mares of the Willow and River Herds to a clump of sagebrushes. "We'll stay here until our stallions come and find us," she told everyone. "Don't leave these sagebrushes until they show up."

"But what if they _don't_ show up?" questioned Spotted Cloud as her colt Leaping Puma nursed from her. "What if Powerful Wolf defeated them and is on his way to get us right now? We're doomed if he comes along!" Some mares whispered to each other about this while their foals stood beside them, confused. Whispering Swan was about to disagree with her when the gelding Crow Scratch came up alongside her.

"Do not fear, mares," he said in a loud, clear voice. "We've seen Lake Eyes fight with Powerful Wolf before, and each time this happens, the leader of the River Herd sends him running off in defeat! Lake Eyes will defeat our herd's enemy, for he does not have the true markings of a leader. Powerful Wolf is strong, yes, but isn't a good leader."

The mares of the Willow Herd looked at the gelding with wide-eyed awe. They'd always known that there should only be one stallion in the herd, the leader. No other stallion above the mature age of four can be part of a herd besides the leader, one of the many Laws of Equus, who'd set up these laws millions of eons ago. However, this gelding was in a herd and had no desire to challenge the leader.

Suddenly, one mare from the Willow Herd, a chestnut roan Appaloosa named Cinder Pine called out, "Look! Some horses are coming this way." Murmuring with excitement and fear, the mares turned in the direction where Cinder Pine had spotted the horses.

"Who are they?"

"Is it Powerful Wolf and Lavender Scent?"

"I don't wish to find out!"

"I'll fight him if he tries to make us come with him!"

"Maybe they'll help us."

"What if those horses have humans with them?"

"We'll be captured!"

"Don't go there!"

Whispering Swan, with her filly Painted Sky by her side, stepped forward and narrowed her turquoise eyes at the approaching figures. She saw that there were only three horses…and one of the three was a bay dun roan.

"It's Storm Leaf!" she exclaimed joyfully. "And there's Lake Eyes and Red Arrow. They're coming to get us and they've triumphed over Powerful Wolf!" All the horses whinnied, filled with happiness and relief. Their leaders were safe.

As Lake Eyes, Red Arrow, and Storm Leaf approached the mares, they whinnied to show that they were here. Eagerly, the mares rushed up to them, their foals close behind. Gathering around the three, the mares of the Willow and River Herds began to shout out questions and exclamations.

"How did the battle go?"

"When did Powerful Wolf surrender?"

"That'll teach the Tornado Herd a lesson!"

"Did that no-good Lavender Scent try to kill you, Leader Red Arrow?"

"I bet Powerful Wolf will _never_ return to pester us after what _you_ did to him, Leader Lake Eyes!"

"Will you try to avenge yourselves by conquering the Tornado Herd, Leader Lake Eyes?" This question was asked by Desert Wind.

"No, Desert Wind," Lake Eyes told her. "I will not avenge myself by conquering the Tornado Herd; it seems like the wrong thing to do. I will only do it if Powerful Wolf makes himself more of a nuisance rather than just a mere threat. But for now, I'll leave his herd at peace."

* * *

A little later that day, the River Herd and the Willow Herd parted ways for the time being, after all the mares were put back with their rightful leaders. "We'll meet again in a few moons," Storm Leaf told Lake Eyes. "It was nice to see you again, my half-brother, with the exception of Powerful Wolf's surprising 'visit.'"

"One day, I'll put some sense into that excuse of a leader," Lake Eyes said. "Farewell, brother Storm Leaf, until we meet again."

"Farewell to you, Red Arrow," Whispering Swan told the liver chestnut nearby. "I'll hope we'll meet up again."

"Yes…maybe when Powerful Wolf isn't around," Red Arrow said with a smile. "My farewells go to you, Whispering Swan." After that, the River Herd left the sagebrushes, heading in a southeastern direction. The Willow Herd was still near the clump of sagebrushes when they departed.

The only sounds that were heard for miles were the thundering of hoof beats as the horses of the River Herd galloped through the wilderness that was their home. Their manes and tails whipped behind them in the wind and their legs pumped. To a human, it was like a moving rainbow of golds, reds, browns, and a speck of gray that belonged to Crow Scratch.

After galloping for a long time, the herd finally stopped near a hill. The scent of humans wafted in the air. This didn't make Lake Eyes pleased.

"Red Arrow, tell everyone to stay here," he ordered his mate. "I can smell humans nearby. Tell them everything will be all right." And without another sound, the silver buckskin trotted up the hill to see what lay beyond. What he saw next gave him the feeling of anger.

It was one of those humans' places, the ones that kept animals such as themselves on. "_What did the birds call those again?"_ he thought to himself. _"…Oh yeah, ranches."_ As he gazed at the ranch, a sound caught his ears. He stepped closer, being careful not to make his presence known.

In one of the humans' fenced areas, two little gray foals ran about, much to the delight of three other gray foals. Judging by their scents and their built, Lake Eyes instantly knew that the foals were donkeys, none were older than a week. One foal that caught his eye was a silver gray one. He was one of the two foals racing about, the other being a lanky gray. As the silver gray foal ran, a though came to Lake Eyes. He'd heard of a Prophecy among his kind, of a donkey foal that would soon come and live among them.

"Hey, look!" a voice shouted. The thought of the donkey foals drifted out of the stallion's mind like the wind. He was shocked to see two humans standing a stone's throw away from him.

"Look at that, Jim! What an unusual sight: a wild mustang near the High Hopes Ranch," mused one of the humans. "I haven't seen that ever since the summer of '91."

"I see 'im, Peter," the other one replied, folding his arms. "What a beauty he is. He'd probably make a fine stud down the road." Lake Eyes snorted at this. _"Human talk!"_ he thought moodily.

"Don't take him, Jim," the one known as Peter warned. "Mr. Dolan _doesn't_ want us to be capturin' no mustangs at all. He thinks that they should run free, in the habitat where they belong." Not wanting to hear anymore of their talking, Lake Eyes turned tail and trotted off, his tail swishing.

"What was it?" Red Arrow asked him when he got back.

"Only a human ranch," Lake Eyes sighed. "Two humans spotted me, but they had no desire to capture me, fortunately." Glancing towards the mares, foals, and the gelding in his herd, he said, "Come on; we'd best find a place to stay before evening settles upon the land."

And so, the River Herd began moving north, hoping to get away from the ranch they'd encountered. What they didn't know was that this evening would change the lives of the animals living on the ranch…and their own lives eventually.


	5. Kidnapped

**Here's Chapter 5!!**

**Sorry for the wait, everyone. But nevertheless, I'm back!**

* * *

"Lizzie, Kyle, I want you two to lock up the donkey stable tonight," Mr. Dolan told the two as they led the jennies and their foals inside to their stalls.

"Why, Mr. Dolan?" Lizzie asked. "Is something the matter?"

"Yes, Lizzie, there is." Mr. Dolan dusted off the straw hat he was wearing and continued. "There's this dude ranch called 'The Lazy Eye Ranch,' which is owned by a friend of mine. He called me earlier to tell me that eight out of ten of the donkey foals born on his ranch a few weeks ago were kidnapped last night."

"Oh, how sad!" Lizzie exclaimed. "Those poor little donkeys…who took them?"

"My friend didn't say what his name was," Mr. Dolan replied. "But someone witnessed the kidnapping occur, a stable boy. He said that there were three men wearing black trench coats and brown boots took the foals. One of them had dirty blond hair and the other two wore dark blue cowboy hats."

"Don't worry, Mr. Dolan," Kyle assured him. "Liz and I'll make sure the doors are secured tonight. We won't let _anyone_ take the little donkeys. I promise you this."

* * *

In her stall, Cornelia listened to the humans as they spoke. Humans who kidnapped donkey foals? That'd never happened before in her life. However, when she was a little filly, her mother had told her of stories of people who were called "bandits." They took livestock, terrorized towns and villages, and were always asking for a fight. "Don't be alarmed, my precious little filly," her mother assured her. "Bandits don't exist anymore. That was many, many years ago."

"Mother, what's wrong?" Lazarus asked as he peered up at her.

"Nothing, my dear," Cornelia assured him as she gazed down at her only foal. "Everything's going to be all right. But if there's _any_ danger, I'll protect you from it with my whole life; I promise."

"Everyone must get plenty of sleep for tonight," Phoebe announced once the humans had left. "Even though we have nothing going on tomorrow, I want us to get a good sleep. You know what they say: early to bed and early to—"

"All _right_, Phoebe," Elijah groaned, sticking his head out of his stall. "We get the message; 'early to bed and early to rise makes an animal more healthy and wise.' Sheesh; you're becoming more and more of a nuisance."

"Just ignore him, Phoebe," Hugo whispered to the rime gray jenny when the brown-eyed donkey withdrew. "Elijah's stubborn as a mule." And after this comment was made, all twelve donkeys, both adult and foal, fell asleep in their stalls, unaware of the horror that was to come...

* * *

Almost four miles away from the entrance to the High Hopes Ranch stood a black Nissan truck. Hitched to it was a dark blue gooseneck horse trailer, but inside the trailer were four donkey foals, braying in fear. Standing besides the trailer was a man with dirty blond hair who was wearing a black trench coat, a pair of jeans, and brown cowboy boots. He was also smoking a cigarette.

"Hey, shut up in there!" the man bellowed, smacking the side of the trailer harshly. The foals heard the man smack the trailer and stopped braying for the moment. They huddled closer together and looked towards the entrance. Then, one of the foals, a platinum gray colt, resumed braying. The rest followed him.

"Oh _please_ let us out, you evil man!" he cried. "We want to go home!"

"We're begging you!" another foal, a filly, added. "We want our mothers! We didn't do anything to deserve this!"

"I hate it in here!" another colt complained. He was three-weeks-old. "There's no food in here." "So do I!" the fourth foal, a colt, agreed. "Where's my mother? I miss her so much!" Suddenly, without warning, the trailer's door opened and the man who was smoking a cigarette barged inside.

"Keep your mouths shut, you gray dirt bags!" he barked, putting his hands on his hips. "It's starting to get late, and I don't wish to put up with yer complainin'! If I hear _one more_ foal complainin' on this trip, I'll whip _all of you_! Do you understand me? I'm not playing games here!" He gazed at the foals huddled together with anger in his hazel eyes. Terrified, the four donkey foals kept silent, fearing of a cruel punishment. Satisfied that he got his message through, the man stepped out and closed the door.

"I hate him. He scares me," the filly whispered quietly.

"I don't want to get punished," the platinum gray foal added. He'd been whipped twice on this trip.

"Me neither," the other two colts added, shaking their heads. Then, one of the two asked, "Marina, where're they gonna take us?"

"I don't know," Marina replied, keeping her voice low. "But I don't think it'll be a good place."

* * *

Outside the trailer, the man, whose name was Jack, resumed smoking his cigarette. He and his two companions had gotten a flat tire as they were driving away from the recent ranch they passed. To their misfortune, that ranch had no donkey foals for them to steal. Right now, his other two companions were dealing with the problem; Jack's job was to watch the donkey foals.

"Are you guys done yet?" Jack demanded. "I want us to kidnap some more donkey foals before the sun comes up!"

"The sun won't come up for hours, pal," a voice said to him from the other side of the truck. "It's a quarter after six; we'll get more foals _long_ before the sun rises."

"I don't care," Jack retorted, removing the cigarette from his mouth briefly. "With this flat tire, we're practically behind schedule."

"We're almost done, anyway," another voice added. "Just let me adjust this and…there! We're finally done."

"Thank God," Jack sighed. "It's about time." The two men came around the front of the truck towards him. Both wore dark blue cowboy hats.

"Okay, Jack," one of them demanded. "Where's the next ranch that we go to?" The dirty blond-haired man pulled a piece of paper from a pocket on his trench coat, unfolded it, and responded, "It's this place called 'The High Hopes Ranch.' One of the guys who works there told me that there were five donkey foals born recently. He's on our side. We'll probably make a profit sellin' them, along with the ones in the trailer." Putting the piece of paper back in his pocket, Jack urged the two men to get in the truck.

Once they were in the truck, Jack started it up and they began driving towards their prize in silence. However, the silence was cut short when one of the two men, whose name was Charles, piped up, "Hey Jack, is it all right if I turn on the radio?"

"No!" Jack snapped. "D'ya want the owner of the ranch to hear us? Now, in just a few more miles, we'll reach our destination, so until we arrive there, I want absolute silence." Jack then grinned evilly as he thought to himself, _"My job is __so__ easy." _

* * *

Cornelia woke up, softly gasping. She'd had a nightmare in which her little Lazarus was taken away from her forcefully, and then all around her were nothing but roaring flames. Glancing at her side, she was relieved to her colt fast asleep. "Thank goodness," she whispered to herself. "Don't worry, Victor; your colt's safe with me."

"Cornelia? Is something wrong?" the jenny heard Tabitha ask. The sea green-eyed donkey mare looked up to see the hazel-eyed jenny looking down at her with concern. "I heard you gasp and I'm checking to see if you're okay."

"Oh…nothing, really," Cornelia fibbed, puzzled as to how the jenny could _actually_ hear her gasp. "I just thought Lazarus wasn't near me, that's all. But I was wrong and he's right next to me. See?" Cornelia pointed to her sleeping colt with her nose. Then, she smiled sheepishly and added, "Boy, motherhood sure is tough for me, especially since I'm new to it."

Tabitha narrowed her hazel eyes at Cornelia in concern before reluctantly nodding. "All right, then. I was merely checking on you. Good night, Cornelia; see ya in the morning." And then she was out of sight. Laying her head down in the hay, Cornelia thought to herself, _"This is going to be such a long night."_

* * *

"Here we are," Jack announced. "The High Hopes Ranch, home to the five little donkeys that'll get us a tidy profit, along with them other runts. And there's our guy." Charles and the third man, Phil, looked to see another man standing at the entrance to the ranch. He had frizzy brown hair and wore a pair of denim jeans and a plain black T-shirt.

Stepping out of the truck, Jack went over to the man and said with a devious smile, "Hey, Zach. We're here to get our prize."

"Good. Follow me." Zach urged the three men to follow him. He led them past a large stable, along a ranch house, and soon, the four men were standing in front of a slightly smaller stable.

"This is where Mr. Dolan, the owner of this ranch, keeps his donkeys," Zach told them. "Inside, there are two studs, six mares, and your five foals."

"Why six?" Phil questioned.

"There's one mare that Mr. Dolan bought recently (like, two or three months ago), and she isn't in foal yet," Zach replied quietly. "Also, one of the two stallions was bought sometime after another stud died."

"Y'know, maybe we shouldn't take the foals," Charles announced softly. "We should take one of the studs instead. We can put him up for breeding and who knows? Maybe he'll sire some good foals down the road. After all, we have dozens of donkey mares back where we work."

"Wow, that's a great idea," Jack said sarcastically, rolling his eyes. "Steal a stud…not bad, Charlie." He clonked Charles on the head and hissed, "You idiot! The boss wants foals _only_. Besides, we've enough studs back where we work, don't ya know?"

"I'm sorry, Jack," Charles moaned, rubbing his head. "It was just a suggestion, not an idea."

"Just wait until I give the signal to take the foals, okay?" Jack turned his attention back to the stable door, which, to his dismay, had a padlock on it. The man assumed that Mr. Dolan wasn't taking any chances. Jack frowned and mumbled a curse under his breath. Zach noticed this and said softly, "Don't worry, pal. I has a key." He reached into his pocket and fished out a spare key. Within a few seconds, the padlock hit the ground with a thud.

"Zach Gardner, you truly are a genius," Phil whispered with an evil smile.

"Come on, guys," Jack whispered, urging them inside the stable. "We'd better get this done quick, or else we're screwed."

* * *

Lazarus awoke with a start. He'd thought he'd heard something hit the ground with a thud outside the stable. "M-M-Mother?"

Cornelia heard her colt's voice and woke up. "What's the matter, dear?"

"I...I heard something outside, Mother." The silver gray donkey mare's eyes widened. She stood up and walked over to her door. Gazing about the darkened stable, Cornelia wished that either Lizzie or Kyle were here, then her foal wouldn't feel alarmed anymore. Unfortunately for her, they weren't.

Turning back to Lazarus, who was now on his feet, Cornelia assured her colt, "Don't worry, my dear foal, everything's going to be—"

She didn't finish her sentence, for all of a sudden, the stable doors burst wide open and four men rushed inside. From across the stable, Cornelia could hear Bernard bray out, "It's bandits!"

"Get away from us, you horrible humans!" yelled Nancy. "You're not taking _my_ foal!"

"Take the foals, men!" one of the humans commanded. "Don't let them get away!"

Cornelia's eyes widened when she noticed that the one who'd just spoken had dirty blond hair and understood the danger: these were the men who kidnapped donkey foals, the ones Mr. Dolan had described.

And they were coming to get hers and her friends'.

"We must fight back, my friends!" Cornelia brayed, trying to be fearless for her colt. "They can't do this to us! We have to fight them!" One of the men opened the door to her stall and stepped inside. In one hand he held a lasso. His attention was fixed on Lazarus, who was hiding behind his mother in fear.

"Come here, ya stupid little colt," the man coaxed viciously. "Come here." This made Cornelia furious. No one should insult her foal like that! And so, she reared up and lashed out at the man, who cried out and stumbled against the wall.

"Quick, run!" Cornelia ordered to Lazarus. "Let's get away!" Together, mother and son escaped from their warm stall and clattered down the small hallway and burst through the open doors. But Cornelia didn't get too far from the stable when she heard a familiar call: "Help! He's got my Bernie! Help me!" It was Nancy. Bernard was being pulled away from his dam by another man.

"Hold on, Nancy! I'm coming!" The silver gray jenny rushed back into the stable and lashed out at the man who was holding Bernard firmly. Startled, he let go of the lanky colt, who seized the opportunity and fled outside.

A rime gray form swept past Cornelia and she wheeled around to see Phoebe and Rita bolt outside. Behind them were Tabitha and Elijah. Before following, Tabitha turned and faced Cornelia. "I've got Phoebe and Rita with me," she said. "I'm also looking for Henrietta and Maverick."

"Aren't they in here?" Cornelia called back.

"I don't think so. I think they're outside. Better go; there's a man behind you!" With that, Tabitha ran off. Cornelia kicked out at whatever was behind her and felt satisfied when she heard a grunt. The silver gray jenny then hurried outside, hoping that her little Lazarus was not harmed.

* * *

Lazarus was running away from the stable he'd always spent the night in ever since the night he was born. What was going on? Did the humans who cared for him, his friends, his mother, and his friends' mothers know what was going on? If so, why hadn't they shown up?

"Help us!" he brayed as loud as he could "Someone please help us!" It was then he noticed something standing outside the entrance to the High Hopes Ranch: a trailer. Inside the trailer were other donkey foals braying piteously. "Maybe they need help, too," Lazarus whispered to himself. "I'd better go and help them."

The silver gray foal trotted up to the trailer's closed door and called, "Who's in there?"

"Go back!" a feminine voice answered. "There are these men who've taken us away from our mothers, and they won't let us go home! You have to leave before it's too late!"

"What kind of men?" Lazarus questioned, puzzled. Suddenly, something grabbed him.

"Gotcha, ya little demon!" The colt looked up and saw the same man who'd tried to take him earlier. Alarmed, he struggled in the man's grasp and brayed for help. He was suddenly silenced with a hard smack to the side of his face.

"Shut up, dirt bag!" the man snapped. Lazarus was horrified and afraid. No one had ever been this cruel to him before. "If you makes another sound, I'll use the whip on you!" He opened the trailer's door and shoved the little donkey foal inside. Lazarus looked at the man in fright. This man was wearing a black trench coat and a dark blue cowboy hat upon his black hair.

"You listen to me, donkey," the man sneered. "My name's Phil and I and my companions are going to be _caring_ for you tonight. We've got a few companions for you, there's hay on the ground to eat, and as soon as this is over, we'll give you some water. Obey us and everything will be fine. But if you don't, you will be punished. So, if you don't wanna be punished, you just listen to everythin' we say." Then, Phil shoved poor little Lazarus and the colt toppled over.

"I hope you won't be disobedient, dirt bag." Phil slammed the trailer's door, but didn't lock it. Lazarus just lay there in the hay, shocked at what was happening to him. _"Mother, please help me,"_ he thought to himself.

* * *

Marina and the other foals stared at this newcomer with slight sympathy. It was she who had tried to warn the silver gray donkey colt to go back, but with no luck. One of the men had grabbed him and shoved him inside.

"Come on, let's go! The others are wakin' up!" they suddenly heard the other two men shout. "We had no luck finding the other two, so we're just gonna have to sell these three and the ones in the trailer. Let's just pray to God that we get a good profit from these seven." Before the donkey foals knew it, two more foals were shoved inside. One was a lanky gray colt and the other was a dull gray filly. Although the two were strangers to Marina and her companions, the colt lying on the ground knew who they were.

"Bernard! Elizabeth!" he exclaimed, standing up. Behind the two, the door to the trailer slammed and was locked shut. Soon, the truck was started up and began to drive away. A horrible stench of smoke filled their nostrils. All seven foals became instantly shocked. This was one night they would never forget.

"Mother! Help us!" the three donkey foals brayed, frightened. Marina knew that there was no going back for any of them. They were now prisoners of the scoundrels Jack, Phil, and Charles.

* * *

Cornelia was panting heavily as she watched the two men force Bernard and Elizabeth into a dark blue trailer. She knew that Tabitha had fled with Elijah, Phoebe, Rita, Henrietta, and Maverick in tow, and that Hugo had also escaped. But where was her foal Lazarus?

"Oh…no!" she gasped suddenly. "No…it can't be!" One of the men that'd kidnapped Bernard had gotten into a truck that the trailer was hitched to, and to make things worse, he'd dropped something onto the ground, and within a few seconds, flames had roared to life near the entrance of the High Hopes Ranch. Among the roaring flames, Cornelia heard cries coming from the trailer as it drove away: "Mother! Help us!" She knew that two of the cries belonged to Bernard and Elizabeth, but one was familiar…

"No! Lazarus!" she cried, running towards the sound once she recognized it. But the roaring flames kept her from pursuing the trailer. "My foal, _no_! Come back, _please_!" She wanted to cry her heart out as she strained to see the dark blue trailer clatter away, carrying her and Victor's son away from her home.

Neither Lazarus nor Cornelia ever saw each other again after that fateful night.

* * *

**Next Chapter: Lazarus, Bernard, and Elizabeth meet their companions and head towards their new home.**

**I'd like to make a brief announcement: there'll soon be a new story by me, called "The Supernova Herd," which is horse-related and tells of a very mighty and rarely-seen herd.**


	6. The Donkey Stockyards of Nevada

As the three men who'd kidnapped Lazarus, Elizabeth, and Bernard drove further on, the three foals stayed close together and stared at their new companions. The other four foals stared back. Then, one of the foals, a filly, stepped forward.

"Hello, there. My name is Marina," she said softly to them. Gesturing to the three foals behind her (they were colts), she introduced them. "The platinum gray colt is Carlos, the colt with the brown eyes is known as Joey, and the three-week-old colt with the notch in his left ear is Dave. Who are you guys?"

"I'm Bernard, but some of those who know me call me Bernie," Bernard replied.

"My name's Elizabeth," said Elizabeth.

"And my name's Lazarus. What's going on, Marina?" Lazarus questioned. "Do you know?"

"Well…not really," Marina admitted. "Joey and Carlos and Dave and I came from a different ranch. We were sleeping peacefully last night and then all of a sudden, those three men came and took us away from our mothers. And now, here we are."

"Just like what happened with us!" Elizabeth exclaimed softly. "Why did those men do that to us? We haven't even done anything wrong."

"None of us know, either," Joey explained. "But I heard that the men are going to take us somewhere."

"Oh, dear," Bernard observed. "I hope it's a good place."

"Sadly, it's not," Joey told him. "I've heard about it from my dam. She'd been kidnapped when she was a foal and was taken somewhere really bad. I don't know what it was called, but my dam told me that donkey foals like us are taken there and given away to different humans. Ones we don't know at all."

"Some are cruel and some are kind," Dave added. "I know; Joey's dam told me about that place. Joey's dam is my aunt."

"Have any of you tried to escape? You know…tried to run away from the humans who've captured us?" Lazarus asked the four. They shook their heads and Marina replied, "No. None of us have. Those humans are too mean and we're afraid of what'll happen. They'll punish us if we even try to step out of the trailer by ourselves. So if you're planning on escaping, don't do it."

Bernard gulped nervously and whispered to his half-brother, "Don't run away, Lazarus. Elizabeth and I need you. There's no one else that we know here."

"Yeah, Lazarus," Elizabeth agreed, nodding her head. "Don't leave us."

Looking from his half-brother to Elizabeth, Lazarus said to them, "I promise I won't leave you. I promise." After this was said, the seven donkey foals remained silent as the truck drove on through the night.

* * *

Dawn was beginning to break on the horizon. Almost two hours ago, Jack, Charles, and Phil had come across another ranch that housed donkeys and kidnapped three foals, all of whom were fillies. They were shoved in alongside Lazarus and the other six.

"What the…what's going on?" one of them exclaimed as she and her companions were shoved into the trailer alongside Lazarus and his companion.

"Help! Someone do something!" another one shrieked, her hazel eyes filled with alarm. She was punished with a swat in the face by Charles, which made Bernard cringe. The third one looked around her new surroundings but said nothing. It was later implied by the filly who was hit that Penny, the name of the third one, was almost totally deaf. Lazarus began to wonder about what would become of her.

Right now, the ten donkey foals were asleep, huddled next to one another, for they were exhausted from the sudden twist of fate that'd just happened a few mere hours ago. Lazarus's head was resting on Elizabeth's back as he dreamt of his happy days on the High Hopes Ranch, where he played with his siblings and slept in the same stall as his mother.

His mother. He missed her so much.

Unknown to the foals, the truck had stopped. Jack had exited from the truck and was now walking towards the dark blue trailer. Around his neck was a whistle. They were finally at their destination.

Jack opened the door to the trailer and stepped inside. He looked at the ten sleeping foals for a few moments before he finally blew his whistle and bellowed, "All right! Everyone, get up!"

Panicked at the sudden wake-up call, every foal struggled to their feet and gazed at Jack. Behind him were six other men as he said, "All right, you donkeys, listen up. We're at our destination. These men behind me will take you ten to where you'll be staying until you're bought." Then, Jack turned to the six men and said calmly, "Men, you know what to do."

"Yes, sir," they chimed before marching towards the foals, who backed up in fear. In their hands, the six men had ropes. One of them, a redhead, tied his rope around Lazarus's neck and tugged roughly, saying, "Let's go, runt." Not knowing what else to do, the sea green-eyed colt followed.

Lazarus was led outside, where he saw that there was nothing that was familiar where the men had taken him. To his left, the silver gray colt saw a large red warehouse surrounded by many large enclosures. In those pens, Lazarus could hear the sounds of braying. Surrounding the place for miles and miles, there was nothing but half-dead grass, shrubs, and bushes. In the sky, a vulture flew overhead.

Behind him, Bernard, Elizabeth, Marina, Dave, and the filly known as Penny were led out. Four other men passed the six and went inside the trailer. They were going to get the remaining foals.

"Okay, you runts, listen up," Lazarus heard Jack snap. "This here's the Donkey Stockyards of Nevada. Here, we bring donkeys of all ages, mostly foals, to this place so they can get sold to different people. You'll probably get sent to live with another owner who owns a ranch, or maybe a _slaughterhouse_." He spoke the last word with such evil that it made Lazarus quiver with fear. The man who was leading Lazarus tugged harder on his rope and forced the colt to follow him. The others followed their lead.

The redheaded man led little Lazarus down a dirt aisle. On either side were pens filled with foals around the donkey colt's age. They were braying for food, their mothers, or to be let out.

"Please let us out!"

"I hate it here! It's too hot!"

"I miss my mother!"

"I'm hungry! When're the oats coming?"

"Give us some water, please! I'm _so_ thirsty!"

"I need some milk _so_ badly!"

"Where's my mother?"

Finally, the man leading Lazarus stopped at a locked metal gate with a number 16 on it. This gate, like many others, led into a pen, which had five foals in it. The ones in the pen looked at the ones outside.

"All right, get inside," the redhead barked, unlocking and opening the gate. He untied the rope around Lazarus and shoved him inside. "This is where you'll be staying until the day you're auctioned off." The five other men behind the redhead followed his example as he stood holding the gate and keeping a close eye on the foals inside the pen, making sure that none of them would dare try to escape. And as soon as the filly known as Penny was pushed inside, the redheaded man shut the gate and firmly locked it. Then, he and the other five men left.

Lazarus stood next to his companions as they stared at the five foals in the pens. The one Lazarus was staring at was a filly. She was plain gray in color with a large white spot on her right flank. And her eyes…they were so different, unique. While the other four foals' eye colors ranged from brown to hazel, this certain filly's eyes were light blue; a lovely color for a donkey.

But then, one of the five foals, a large colt with brown eyes, stepped forward and asked in a rude tone, "Okay now, who are you guys?"

One by one, Lazarus and his friends introduced themselves. When they were done the large colt said, "Well, welcome to the Donkey Stockyards of Nevada. My name's Trenton."

"I'm Rhonda; pleased to meet you all," a slate gray filly with hazel eyes said sweetly, casting a flirty glance at Bernard.

"I don't have a name that the humans can call me by," the colt next to the hazel-eyed filly announced. "But my mother and the donkeys that live here call me Gerald." He was a light gray colt with little flecks of white on his muzzle.

"My name is Regis," another colt announced, proudly stepping forward. He was almost as big as Trenton. His pelt was taupe gray and his eyes were russet brown. "I am the son of King Ian, the Donkey Stockyards of Nevada's finest sire. He has sired fourteen foals, and I was his twelfth offspring. My mother is Ophelia, who is one of the finest-bred dams as well as one of the best broodmares of this place."

"Don't make your hellos so dramatic, Regis," the light blue-eyed filly snapped at him. Then, she turned to the newcomers and added, "Don't mind him, you guys. He _always_ does that. Anyway, my name is Virginia. Apparently, Regis is my half-brother through the same sire, but my dam is known as Vega."

"Virginia is his thirteenth foal," Regis pointed out. "She is two weeks younger than me."

"Cut it out, Regis," Virginia snapped again. "You've practically told _everybody_ who came into this pen before they were sent to the auctions."

"Auctions?" Lazarus asked, confused. "What're auctions?"

"It's when donkeys of all ages are sent to get sold," Trenton explained.

"See that building?" Virginia asked, pointing to the large red warehouse. When Lazarus and his companions nodded, she explained, "Once a week, the humans who work here select some pens and which donkeys in those pens should go. Next, they take those donkeys and lead them to the auction house, which is the large red warehouse you see. And once those donkeys go into that building, most of them never come back. Other humans buy them."

"The last auction was yesterday, so you guys will have to wait until next week," Rhonda added. Then, she got an idea and asked the newcomers, "Would you like to have some hay with us? Even though the humans don't like us, at least the food's good." Only Marina, Dave, and Penny joined her for a helping of hay. Elizabeth, Lazarus, and Bernard couldn't. They had yet to grow teeth.

"But...but we don't want food," Bernard said. "We want milk."

"Then you'll just have to wait for the milk feeder," Regis stated.

"The _what_?" Elizabeth asked, puzzled.

"The milk feeder is what the humans bring by every day," Trenton explained. "We call it the milk feeder because it, well, gives us milk. The humans got many milk feeders, and they usually bring one at this time of day." He smiled as he gestured to the metal gate and added, "And here comes one."

Sure enough, the redheaded man who'd led Lazarus in opened the gate and pushed something in on a steel gray platform hand truck. The little sea green-eyed colt eyed the thing with curiosity. The thing was black and measured four and a half feet tall. Sticking out around the middle were twelve plastic nipples. At the top of the thing was a see-through container filled to the brink with milk.

"_This_ is a milk feeder?" Lazarus asked aloud as the redheaded man walked out of the pen.

"Yeah," Virginia replied. "Go ahead; drink some milk." Eagerly, Elizabeth, Dave, Bernard, Marina, and Penny dashed over to it, took hold of a plastic nipple, and began to suckle. Lazarus stood back and watched Virginia as she ate a little more hay. "Aren't you going to have some milk?" he asked.

"Not yet," she replied. "I'm only eleven days old and I can eat some stuff like hay."

The silver gray donkey colt was shocked. "I…I'm barely seven days old."

"Well, then, since you can't get food, then you must go to the milk feeder and get a drink of milk," Regis said rudely. The foals near him glared at the taupe gray colt.

"Regis, just knock it off," Rhonda snapped at him. She turned to Lazarus and said politely, "I'm sorry for how Regis is acting to you and your friends right now. He got separated from his mom a couple of days after he was born." With a nod of his head, Lazarus joined his friends at the milk feeder.

The milk was bland and was different compared to Cornelia's milk, but nevertheless, it was still milk. Lazarus drank as much of the odd-tasting milk as he could before Regis pushed him aside. Shyly, the little donkey colt moved to the plastic nipple next to Regis and drank some milk from that. But he hardly had more than a few drops before Regis shoved him away.

"Hey!" Lazarus cried. "What'd I do wrong?"

"I'm entitled to _two_ of these plastic nipples, newcomer," Regis snapped, turning away from the milk feeder to glare at him. "Since my sire is the best one at this place, you should let me have both. After all, I _am_ a pedigree."

Virginia, who was the first to finish, glanced at Lazarus and said, "Come over here, Lazarus; you can have this nipple." Glad for her generosity, the silver gray colt moved towards the nipple she offered and began to suckle from it. As he drank as much of the milk that remained, he could hear Regis and Virginia argue.

"Virginia, my half-sister, how _dare_ you offer a newcomer some milk?" Regis demanded.

"_You_ don't have to be so mean to the new guys, Regis," Virginia retorted. "They came here without their mothers, hungry and afraid of this place. At least show a little bit of kindness to them."

"_You're_ just jealous because _I'm_ a pedigree," the taupe gray colt said proudly. "King Ian is my sire, so I'm the best foal around."

"We have the same sire, idiot," Virginia snapped.

"Well, my bloodlines are more exquisite than yours. My mother Ophelia is one of the best broodmares around."

"So is my mother Vega. In fact, I think she's more well-bred than your mother."

Regis squealed in fury and reared up at her. "How _dare_ you insult my mother? I'll show you!"

"Bring it on, then!" Virginia yelled, baring her teeth. It was at this point that Lazarus stopped feeding and looked up. So did the others.

In the other pens surrounding the one Lazarus and his companions were in, the foals were starting to chant, "Fight, fight, fight! Fight, fight, fight!" as Virginia and Regis reared up and lashed out at each other with their hooves. The plain gray filly reached out to snap at her half-brother's neck, but he avoided it. They brayed and squealed loudly at each other. Trenton, Rhonda, and Gerald pranced around the fighting siblings, egging them on.

"I can't believe what I'm seeing," Marina said aloud.

"Me neither," Bernard added. "I never thought foals like us would fight each other like this."

"Should someone stop them?" Lazarus pondered.

"I believe someone is," said Dave, gesturing to the metal gate. There, the redheaded man opened the gate and stormed inside, followed by a man with dark brown hair. Rhonda, Gerald, and Trenton saw them and darted to a corner, but Virginia and Regis did not stop fighting each other until the redheaded man grabbed hold of the plain gray filly and tied a rope around her neck. The dark brown-hared main did the same with Regis.

"These two are always causing so much trouble," the redheaded man announced. "This is the fifth time this week that they've disrupted the peace here."

"I'll say," the man with dark brown hair agreed. "Ironically, these two are half-siblings."

"Really?"

"Yeah; King Ian is their sire, but they have different mothers."

"We should punish 'em, right?"

"Yep; take 'em to the Black Shack. Forty lashes for each. But because they've been fighting more, I'd say they could get fifty." Then, the two men pulled Virginia and Regis out of the pen and locked the metal gate. The milk feeder was still in there and there was still a little bit of milk in the see-through container. Not wanting to waste any milk, Bernard trotted over to it again and began drinking what was left of the milk. He was joined by Penny.

However, Lazarus and the others didn't join them. They weren't hungry anymore, but instead remained watching the gate as both Virginia and Regis were pulled away. Finally, little Lazarus broke the silence by asking, "What's the Black Shack?"

"It's an awful place," Trenton replied, shuddering. Rhonda and Gerald shuddered as well. "It's this little shack at the far end of the Donkey Stockyards of Nevada. The humans who work here take foals there that've been bad."

"On either side of the Black Shack are two pens that are big enough to hold only twenty donkey foals," Rhonda continued. "The one on the left is where the foals are put as they await their punishment, made of chain-link. The one on the right is for the foals that have already been punished, made of wood. Usually, they have to stay in there for the rest of the day, without any food or water. I know; I've been there twice."

Shocked, Elizabeth asked her, "What'd you do?"

"Well, the first time I was there was when I attempted to escape. The second time I was there, it was when I kicked a human on accident. If you guys don't want to go to the Black Shack, then don't cause _any_ trouble." Just then, a blond-haired man showed up, unlocked the gate, shooed Bernard and Penny away from the milk feeder, and took it away.

* * *

Around noon, the redheaded man and the dark brown-haired man brought Virginia and Regis back. Lazarus and the other foals gathered around them, looking at them with concern. There were fresh cuts on their backs and there was a bit of blood on Virginia's backside.

"How…how bad was it?" Lazarus asked them, concerned. Regis glared at him and walked off, followed by Rhonda and Gerald. Virginia, on the other hand, simply said, "It was forty-five lashes this time. I went first and Regis followed. Dagger was there as well." The other foals nodded their heads in understanding.

"Who's Dagger?" Lazarus asked, puzzled.

"He's a mean dog," Trenton explained. "He usually watches us foals get punished. Most of the time, he threatens to hurt us if we cause anymore trouble."

Lazarus sighed heavily. Even though it was his first day at the Donkey Stockyards of Nevada, he was already tired of the misery. He wanted to brighten the mood.

"Does anyone want to play race?" he suggested.

Elizabeth and Bernard's eyes brightened. "Oh, yes!" they cheered. However, the other foals weren't so easy with the idea.

"I don't think you can do that," Trenton told them. "One time, there was this foal who wasn't born here, and he got punished for playing with a bucket."

"Trenton, I really don't care," Lazarus snapped. "I just want to play like I usually did back at where I was born. Now come on, let's play!"

Kicking up their heels, Lazarus, Elizabeth, and Bernard cantered as fast as they could around and around their pen. Virginia watched with interest and wished that she could join them, even though she had a sore back. But then, her light blue eyes wandered to the gate, and the gray filly gasped when she saw a black-haired human walking up, pushing a platform hand truck in front of him. On it was another milk feeder.

"Guys, human!" she brayed. Elizabeth and Bernard skidded to a stop, but Lazarus didn't. He kept cantering, braying with happiness, glad to have something to do.

That is, until he bumped into the milk feeder. The black-haired man jumped back as the milk feeder teeterd over harshly to the right and landed on the dirt ground with a clang. The plastic see-through container on the top cracked in half, and milk spilled out. All the foals in the pen watched with horror and increasing hunger as the milk spread out on the ground and dried up in the Nevada sun. Regis was not pleased.

"Great, just great!" he complained. "I get forty-five lashes and no milk at noontime! Lazarus, this is all—" He was silenced with a glare from Trenton.

The black-haired man looked from Lazarus to the fallen milk feeder and back at Lazarus again. He was enraged with what the foal had done.

"You stupid dirt bag! You pathetic runt!" he bellowed, lunging towards the silver gray colt, who backed up in alarm. Virginia, who was the nearest foal to Lazarus, leaned over and whispered, "This man is Herod. He's usually the one who punishes the naughty foals here."

Lazarus heard her. He wanted to escape from this awful place and run all the way back to the High Hopes Ranch, back to his mother. But he knew that he couldn't as Herod tied a rope around his neck. Looking up at the black-haired man with wide, sea green eyes, Lazarus knew that he was going to get what Virginia and Regis had gotten.

"I'll teach _you_ to break a milk feeder!" Herod growled, moving towards the metal gate and pushing the donkey colt's lanky gray half-brother out of the way in the process. Giving a hard yank on the rope, Herod pulled Lazarus forward as he shut and locked the gate behind him. All the foals in that pen could only look on as the black-haired man pulled Lazarus towards the Black Shack...and towards his punishment.

* * *

Eight foals were in the pen on the left of the Black Shack when Herod brought Lazarus up for his punishment. The pen that Rhonda spoke of was indeed made of chain-link, and the foals peered out in hopelessness.

"Here we are, runt," Herod snapped as he approached the gate to the chain-link fence. He unlocked and opened it, untied the rope from around Lazarus's neck, and shoved him inside, adding, "I'll decide how many lashings you will get for breaking a milk feeder. Those things cost four hundred dollars to make and _six_ hundred to get them repaired." He closed and locked the gate.

Lazarus watched Herod walk away as he pondered about what would become of himself. The man was furious when he broke the milk feeder on accident, and when Herod said that he would decide on how many lashing he would get for doing such a thing, the little colt shuddered. If only humans were given the power to speak with animals, maybe Lazarus would apologize deeply for his mistake, and hopefully, he wouldn't be here.

Turning around, Lazarus looked at his eight companions. Six of the foals were around seven to thirteen days old, while the other two looked to be more than a few months old. There were some scarring on their backsides, so Lazarus thought they were born here.

"So, what're you in for?" one of the foals, a light gray colt, asked. His left eye was glazed, showing that he was blind in that eye.

"I knocked a milk feeder over on accident," Lazarus replied sadly. The foals gasped in response to that. Puzzled, the silver gray colt asked what was wrong.

"That's a _really_ bad thing to do," a filly told him. She was one of the two foals that was a few months old. "The human known as Herod, he give us punishments that depends on what we did. And knocking over a milk feeder…you may've claimed to have done it on accident, but Herod _won't_ accept that. I hate to break it to you, but I think you'll be given a _very_ harsh punishment." Lazarus's eyes widened in shock. Suddenly, the gate reopened, and the foals turned to see Herod standing there.

"It's time," Herod simply said, stepping into the pen. The foals saw that he was holding a rope in his hands. Lazarus hid behind two of the foals, his ears pinned back in fear. But to his surprise, Herod didn't come for him. Instead, the black-haired man moved towards a rime gray colt that had only been on Earth for nine days. Panicking, the colt sprang away from the man, and reached a corner braying, "Oh, _please_ don't do this to me, mister! I'm so sorry for biting that man, and…and…oh, please! Please, don't! Don't do this!"

Herod didn't pay attention to the colt's pleas and tied the rope around his neck. The rime gray colt squealed and brayed as loud as he could, kicking and lashing out with all his might. At first, Herod tolerated this for a few minutes before he got agitated. With all his might, Herod yanked the rope as the colt reared up. The sudden force caused the rime gray foal to fall over. After a few minutes, Herod urged the colt back on its hooves and dragged him inside the Black Shack. The foals remained silent as they heard that certain foal's begin take place. The crack of a whip and the brays of the colt were the only sounds heard. The ones who were a few months old counted how many lashings he'd received.

When the beatings stopped, the filly who'd spoken who Lazarus announced, "He'd just received forty lashings." No one spoke as Herod pulled the foal out of the Black Shack and into the other pen. Blood was dripping from the area behind his withers. Lazarus shuddered at the sight of them.

* * *

Three more foals went into the Black Shack before it was finally Lazarus's turn. As Herod approached him, the filly who'd spoken to Lazarus earlier quietly whispered, "Good luck."

"Try braying as loud as you can," a colt whispered to him on his right. "They'll probably stop the beating sooner. I know; I've tried it twice." Then, the foals scurried away from Lazarus as Herod stood in front of him. The rope was in his hands.

"All right, runt," he snapped. "I've made my decision: for breaking a milk feeder, you are to receive seventy-five lashings as punishment." The remaining four foals gasped in shock as the rope was tied around Lazarus's neck and he was dragged out of the chain-link pen and into the Black Shack.

When he got inside, Lazarus looked around at the surroundings, fear clutching his heart. On his left was a small table, which held a great amount of riding whips, cat o' nine tails, crops, and stockwhips. Sticking out in the middle were four wooden poles that went up to his withers. Each one was at least three feet away from the other.

"Get right there, you little troublemaker," Herod ordered, pushing the foal to the middle, so that he was in the middle. For a moment, he was left alone, but he nearly jumped in alarm as he felt something around his hocks. The colt realized that Herod was going to tie him up so he couldn't move as he was given his punishment.

Herod tied the end of the rope that connected to Lazarus's left hock to the nearest pole on his left so tight and firm that the foal felt like the blood was going to stop its circulation. Herod did the same to the donkey foal's right hock. Then, he moved towards the colt's front. He took some rope and tied it around the colt's knees, so that they would be pinned together.

"Stay there and don't move," the black-haired man snapped at Lazarus. "I'll be right back." Before he left, he whistled, and Lazarus turned his head to see a dog trot into the Black Shack. The dog was an ugly mix between a Mountain Cur, an American Pit Bull Terrier, and a Doberman.

"Who…who _are_ you?" Lazarus whimpered.

"I am Dagger," the dog replied sadistically. "And _you're_ in trouble." The dog moved to the front of the donkey foal and demanded to know what trouble he'd gotten himself into.

"Well…I sorta…knocked over a milk feeder on accident," Lazarus said softly.

"You _sorta_ knocked it over?" Dagger growled, baring his teeth. The silver gray foal got scared and nodded his head, adding, "It was an accident, I swear it. I didn't see the milk feeder there until it was too late—"

The dog moved closer to Lazarus in a threatening way and snarled, "Listen, runt. I don't _care_ if what you did was on accident or on purpose. You're _still_ going to get punished. It's how everything works here at the Donkey Stockyards of Nevada." The Mountain Cur-Doberman mix suddenly turned his head to see Herod standing in the doorway.

"Okay, Dagger; I'm back," the man told him. Obediently, the dog trotted away from the foal, but before he did, he said to the foal, "Accident or on purpose, you'll get punished for it here."

As soon as Dagger was gone, Herod shut the door and marched towards Lazarus. In his hands were two separate ropes. He tied one of them around Lazarus's front left pastern and connected it to the wooden post on his left, and vice versa with the right front pastern. Knowing that his punishment was only seconds away, Lazarus began to bray as loud as he could, hoping that someone would hear his cries.

"Keep it down, runt!" Herod snapped. He moved towards the right side of the room and came back with a small sack made from cotton and put it on Lazarus's muzzle. He used some extra rope to keep the bag securely on the foal's face.

"There, now no one will hear your screams of mercy," announced Herod as he moved towards the table containing the whips. "Let's see what I should use to punish you…hmm…not that one, too small. Not this one; it'll be too short…aha! This one will do." The man approached Lazarus again. The little donkey foal glanced up and his eyes widened with terror as Herod held up a cat o' nine tails made of rawhide.

"Just as I said before, you'll get seventy-five lashings," Herod announced as he stepped beside the foal. "Don't scream or nothin' because no one will hear you." Then, the punishment commenced.

The first ten lashes were startling and painful for the little foal. Never before had he been punished for anything. Sure, he was scolded for causing a little trouble back at the High Hopes Ranch, but _no one_ ever hit him.

_"Please, no more!"_ Lazarus thought to himself, moving his head from side to side. _"I won't knock a milk feeder over again! Please, just let me go!"_ The eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth lashes went right at his head, forcing the donkey colt to remain still. Something trickled from behind his right ear, and Lazarus realized with widening horror that it was _his_ own blood.

When the twentieth lash was applied onto the foal's back, Lazarus was still begging in his mind for Herod to realize that what he'd done was an accident and let him go. But Herod kept going, and by the time he'd reached the thirty-second lash, blood was beginning to ooze out from some of the cuts.

This set Lazarus off and began to move as much as he could and bray as loud as he could, despite the sack over his muzzle. Herod became angered with the colt's struggles, and for the thirty-fifth, thirty-sixth, thirty-seventh, and thirty-eighth lashes, he sent his cat o' nine tails upon the foal's head once more, yelling, "Shut up, you little runt, and wait until your punishment is over, or else I'll give you _one hundred_." At first, Lazarus refused to obey, but when the thirty-ninth and fortieth lashes went straight at his face, he stopped struggling. Knowing that there was nothing that he could do, Lazarus had no choice but to wait the punishment out.

Herod continued the lashings. Ten more lashings and he was now at fifty, and another ten more got the man to sixty. Lazarus was breathing heavily. He shut his eyes and hoped that the man would finish up as soon as possible. _"Please…stop,"_ he thought to himself._ "I've had enough."_ Blood flowed from the opened cuts and stained his sides with red. The cut behind his right ear was still bleeding and the blood stained his neck as well.

Sixty-one, sixty-two, sixty-three…Herod kept count in his head. He didn't seem to notice that there were dots of blood on the wooden floor. The ends of the cat o' nine tails were also stained with red.

Sixty-four, sixty-five, sixty-six, sixty-seven…Lazarus's forelegs were beginning to tremble and his muscles began to ache.

Sixty-eight, sixty-nine, seventy…only five more lashes to go. The foal's sea green eyes rolled to his back, wondering how bad his back was.

Seventy-one, seventy-two…Herod grinned sadistically, knowing that the punishment he was giving this reckless donkey foal was almost done.

Seventy-three, seventy-four, seventy-five…Lazarus's first punishment was now over. The first thing Herod did was put the cat o' nine tails down before he removed the sack from around Lazarus's muzzle. The foal took deep, heavy breaths, glad to have fresh air reenter his lungs.

Suddenly, something cold splashed upon the young foal's back. Shocked, Lazarus knew that it was water. Herod had dumped a whole bucketful of it onto the foal, not to clean his pelt off, but to see how the foal would react to it.

"Now, I hope you've learned your lesson and that you'll never do a ridiculous thing again, or I'll make your punishment _ninety-five_ lashings instead," Herod announced as he began to untie the foal from the wooden poles. The rope around Lazarus's neck was still there, and as soon as the last rope was untied from the donkey foal, Herod took the rope and forced the foal to follow him out of the Black Shack and into the sunlight.

The black-haired man led the donkey colt into the pen on the Black Shack's right, the one made out of wood. There were only two foals there, both colts.

"Get inside the pen, runt," Herod barked, opening the gate to the pen and pushing the little foal inside. "You're to stay here for the rest of the afternoon to think about what you've done." Lazarus fell to the dirt ground. None of the two colts laughed at him as Herod walked off.

"What…what're you two doing here?" Lazarus asked. He noticed that one of the two was rime gray. In fact, he was the same one Lazarus saw from earlier.

"Waiting until we can go back into our pens," the rime gray colt replied. "Herod puts us here after we're punished. I'm supposed to stay here until tomorrow morning."

"I'm here until tomorrow night. Don't try to rebel, foal; they'll still punish you, whether you're from these stockyards or not. We're used to it, after all," the other colt, who was slate gray in color, added. "We were born here."

Lazarus said nothing. Neither did the two colts. The sea green-eyed colt's back was throbbing in pain from the lashing as the day wore on.

* * *

As the sun sank below the horizon and the lights at the Donkey Stockyards of Nevada flickered on, Herod came for Lazarus.

The foal did nothing as Herod tied another rope around his neck and led him back to the pen that held Bernard, Elizabeth, Virginia, Regis, Marina, Trenton, Gerald, Rhonda, Penny, and Dave were held in.

The walk back to the pen was pretty long, but in a matter of time, Herod brought Lazarus back. He untied his rope, unlocked and opened the gate, and with a slap on the hindquarters, forced Lazarus to go inside.

The moment he placed his hooves back into the familiar pen, all the foals (except for Regis) swarmed around him like bees, looking at his newly-acquired cuts and asking him questions.

"What did the man do to you?"

"How long did you wait before you were punished?"

"Was the dog Dagger there?"

"How many lashings did you get?" This question was spoken by Trenton.

"I got seventy-five," Lazarus said sadly. "And yeah, the dog Dagger was there. I…I hate it here. I just want to go back home."

"I know how you feel, Lazarus," Virginia told him sympathetically, touching her nose to his. "Many of us who're born here want our mothers again, and those who aren't born here want to go back to the place where they were born. But in the end, we all learn to accept what's happened while some usually blame the humans who work here." As she stepped away from Lazarus, Trenton announced, "We'd all better get some sleep. You newcomers have a long week ahead of you before the next auction."

The foals scattered about the pen before they drifted off into the land of sleep. Lazarus slept near Bernard and Elizabeth. Deep down, he knew that he had to spend as much time as he could with them. Bernard was his half-brother and Elizabeth was his playmate, but both were the only two familiar faces he knew.

_"Seven days until this auction,"_ the silver gray donkey foal thought before he fell asleep. _"I hope we're not apart of it."_

* * *

**Wow, long chapter; it has 6,572 words in it :)**

**Next chapter: Lazarus and his companions go to the auctions. Who'll buy Lazarus?**


	7. Auctioned Off

A whole week passed since Lazarus was taken away from his mother and brought to the Donkey Stockyards of Nevada, along with Bernard, Elizabeth, and the foals he'd met in the dark blue trailer. Because of the strictness, it was clear that there was no hope into running away. Virginia told Lazarus that few were able to flee, and they were usually brought back and punished.

During that time, some of his companions had their experience at the Black Shack. On the second day, Elizabeth knocked over a bucket of oats in the pen next to them and received thirty-five lashes. On the fourth and fifth day, Penny lashed out at two handlers who'd yelled and insulted her and got forty lashes for it. Also on the fifth day, Bernard tugged at a passerby's shirt and ripped it. The poor lanky gray colt was lashed twenty-five times as punishment and was pretty shaken up when he was brought back later that day.

"It…it was awful," he wailed as the foals gathered around him. "Herod…he just hit me and hit me and it hurt so much."

Right now, it was the evening of the sixth night Lazarus and his companions were here. Apparently, after she was punished on the fifth day, Penny got moved to another pen that was closer to the large red warehouse. The foal who was put in the pen to replace her was a colt gray as steel with a notch in his left ear and a scar over his right eye. He refused to tell anyone what his name was, but Trenton knew him and told the others that the steel gray colt's name was Ashton.

"I _really_ want to go home," Bernard complained, gazing down at a bit of hay scattered on the ground. Lazarus and Elizabeth were beside him.

"Me too," Elizabeth added. "I hate it here. The humans don't treat us nicely."

"Well, too bad," Regis sneered as he came over to the three. "This will be your home until the day you are sold, whether you like it or not."

"We don't care about what _you_ say, Regis," Lazarus snapped. "All three of us want to be back at the place where we were born." Ever since Lazarus was punished for the first time, Regis wasn't acting so kind to them. In fact, he was treating them harshly and bossing them around.

"Yeah," Elizabeth and Bernard said in unison.

"Hah," Regis snorted. "You three most likely _won't_ be going back to your precious home. Tomorrow's the auctions, and I've heard from a human that all the foals in this very pen are going to the large red warehouse. And once you're sold, none of you three will ever see each other again." He leered at them when he spoke the last sentence, and then with a swish of his tail, he walked off.

Lazarus watched Regis walk off with fury in his heart. _"No, it can't be true!"_ he thought angrily to himself. _"Even if I do get sold, I won't leave Bernie and Elizabeth!" _He glanced at his two half-siblings, who were stunned by Regis's words.

* * *

The sun rose slowly the next morning, casting its light upon the sleeping donkey foals. Rain clouds were forming in the west, but they would not bring any precipitation until late in the afternoon. Today was the day the auctions would take place.

"All right guys, today's the day," Virginia announced solemnly as the other awoke and stood up. When every foal was on its feet, Trenton forced them to stand next to each other. He wouldn't say anything when Bernard asked what was going on.

Once the foals were standing shoulder to shoulder, Trenton stood in front of them and announced, "Okay, listen up, newcomers. Today is the day of the auctions. Regis has told me that we're _all_ going to the large red warehouse. Now, I don't know what'll happen to all of you, but all I can say is that some of you will be sold to new owners, while others—"

"No!" Bernard brayed suddenly. "I won't go! You can't make me!"

"Silence, colt!" Regis snapped at him. "Trenton is speaking to us."

Trenton glared at the two before resuming. "Okay, as I was saying, some of you will be sold to new owners, while others are going to be brought back here at the end of the day. But here's what I'll tell you in case if you get sold: be good to your new master. Don't ever fight back or they'll punish you. It won't matter if your owner will be nice or mean to you; what matters is that you must please them as best as you can and be a good foal. That's what my mother told me before I got taken away from her. Do you understand what I'm saying to all of you?"

Everyone nodded.

"Good. Well, the humans won't come for us anytime soon, but until then, we can do something."

"I know!" Rhonda exclaimed in a voice loud enough to wake up the foals in the neighboring pens. "We can trot in circles." The foals in the pen nodded in agreement before they began trotting around in circles with their tails lifted and their heads high. Lazarus decided to join because it might be the last time he'd play with familiar faces.

* * *

"Okay, let's review," Jack announced as he, Charles, Phil, and ten other handlers stood in the small, one-room brown shack in front of the large red warehouse where the auctions would take place. Jack was holding a piece of paper and he was reading off of it. "The pens that'll be going to the auctions today are pen numbers eight through eleven, pen number sixteen, pen number thirty-eight, and pen numbers ninety-five through ninety-seven."

"Plenty of foals will get sold today," Phil observed. The other men nodded in agreement.

"Okay, everyone," said Jack as he stepped towards the door. "Let's go and get the foals." The other men snatched up lassos and followed him outside.

Phil and Charles led ten men towards pen number sixteen. Inside, the eleven foals were trotting around.

"Hah, look at those foals," Charles observed mockingly. "They think they're high-class." He unlocked the gate and went towards Regis. As soon as the man reached the taupe gray colt, he tied his lasso around Regis's neck and smacked his hindquarters roughly.

"Stop acting so proper," Charles bellowed, tugging on Regis's rope. Lazarus and the others stopped what they were doing and stared at Charles. Other men went into the pen and lassoed up a donkey foal. The one that had Lazarus was the redheaded man who brought him into the pen. Yanking on his lasso, the redhead snapped, "C'mon, ya dirt bag. It's time." Continuing yanking on the rope, he forced Lazarus out of the pen and towards the large red warehouse. Behind the silver gray colt came Regis, then Virginia, and the rest followed in a straight line.

Lazarus swallowed hard as the redheaded man pulled him closer and closer to the large red warehouse. _"Please don't let me be sold today,"_ he thought to himself. _"I don't want to get taken away from Bernie and Elizabeth. They're my siblings."_ Before the donkey foal knew it, they were inside.

"Get inside this pen," the redheaded man ordered, shoving Lazarus into a pen half the size of the one he, Bernard, Elizabeth, and the others were kept in for the past week. On the gate to the small pen was a white piece of cardboard with a number 3 painted on it. Joining Lazarus in Pen #3 were Virginia, Elizabeth, Trenton, Dave, Marina, and Ashton. The rest were put into the pen on the left, which was Pen #4.

When the men had left, Lazarus looked around at his new surroundings. There were only one hundred small pens in this warehouse, fifty on the left and fifty on the right. The ones on the left held the foals while the ones on the right held the adult donkeys. At the far end of the warehouse was a stage with ramps leading up to them (Virginia told him that was where donkeys of all ages would be brought up and were auctioned off). At the other far end was a large opening. There, humans would take their newly-bought donkeys through the opening and you'd never see them again. To the left of that opening was a door, where people were marching in.

"Here comes the buyers," Trenton observed, frowning. Lazarus looked at each and ever human that passed their pen, his sea green eyes searching for a familiar face. He couldn't find a familiar face, but there was one human that caught his attention: a dark brown-haired man in his early forties. This man was wearing a Navy blue jockey jack with a celadon stripe running around the middle and in the middle of the sleeves. On both sides of the sleeves were three different Greek symbols in yellow outlining (they stood for his fraternity group, Lambda Zeta Xi). The man was also wearing a pair of jeans.

"Who is that man?" Lazarus asked Virginia, pointing to him with his nose.

"That man's Thomas Dumont, but everyone around here calls him Mr. Dumont," the blue-eyed filly answered. "He owns racehorses. Sometimes, he comes here to help out with the auctions." The two donkey foals watched Mr. Dumont as he strode up to the stage and walked onto the ramp. There, Jack was adjusting a microphone into a stand when he noticed him.

* * *

"Ah, Mr. Dumont!" Jack exclaimed, smiling at him. "You here to help out with this week's auctions?"

"Of course, but there's something else," Mr. Dumont told him. He leaned towards Jack and asked, "Do you remember my old training donkey Mordecai?"

"Yeah. What happened?" Jack was curious. He'd been to Mr. Dumont's ranch a few times before to watch the man's only donkey race against his two-year-old Thoroughbreds. The goal for that was to teach them how to race against others. And every time these mock races happened, Mordecai was forced to lose.

"He twisted his hind leg last Thursday. Darned fool did it during a mock race. I had him euthanized immediately after it happened," Mr. Dumont told him, with no sadness in his voice whatsoever. "He was only thirteen. And that's the other reason why I'm here: to get a replacement for Mordecai. Probably a foal. Train him to run and perform in the mock races for the two-year-olds I'm training."

"Oh, really?"

"Yes, Jack." Mr. Dumont looked at the pens that held the foal and added, "Will it be all right if I were to take whichever foal I wanted?"

"You'll have to ask the owner, Tom," Jack stated matter-of-factly.

"Of course he can, Jack." Mr. Dumont and Jack turned to see the owner of the Donkey Stockyards of Nevada, Amos Campbell, walk up the ramp towards them. "In fact, as a special gift, I'll let him pick out first. I've overheard about what happened to his Mordecai and I'm going to let him have whichever foal he wants. But until we get enough people in here, he'll have to wait."

"Thanks, Amos," Thomas Dumont said to him with a smile as the two shook hands. "You're _very_ generous."

* * *

The early morning moved at a slug's pace. More people flooded into the warehouse and towards the stage, hoping to buy a good donkey. Lazarus watched each and every human that went past Pen #3 closely, hoping that he would find a familiar face. Sadly, he found no one that looked noticeable.

"It's no use, Lazarus," Elizabeth said to her half-brother. "There's no sign of Mr. Dolan, Kyle, _or_ Lizzie." A squeak of the microphone caused all the donkeys in the pens to look towards the stage. The owner of the stockyards, Amos Campbell, was standing in front of the microphone and speaking into it.

"Good morning, everyone," he boomed. "Welcome to the weekly auctions. Joining us once again is Thoroughbred breeder Thomas Dumont, best known for the breeder and owner of Homelander, first place champion of the 2001 Idaho Derby, the 2002 Gold River Race, and the 2004 and 2005 Colorado Stakes." A few people clapped as Amos gave the microphone to Mr. Dumont.

"Hello, everybody," he announced. "I'm glad to be here as well. Apparently, I'm not here just to help out. I'm here to pick out a new donkey because my old was euthanized due to a twisted leg. I thank Mr. Campbell for allowing me to select my very own. Once I select one, we'll begin the auctions."

"Jack! Phil!" Amos called out to the men. "Bring out the foals from the third pen."

Lazarus's heart skipped a beat. This was it. If the man known as Mr. Dumont took an interest in him, then the little foal would never see his friends or half-siblings again. He wished for some sort of miracle as Jack opened the gate and tied a rope around Lazarus's neck, saying, "Let's go, runt," and pulling him out of the pen and towards the stage.

Lazarus was led on stage first, followed by the rest. Lazarus stood near the other ramp, with Jack keeping a firm grip on his rope. The donkey foal's sea green eyes glanced at the ramp near him, wishing that if Jack wasn't holding onto him, he could break free of these awful people and make a run for home.

Nearby, Mr. Dumont took out a pine green donkey collar from a tall, thin man who'd been with him. Inscribed on this collar in yellow was "Property of Silver Sycamore Stables." And so, Mr. Dumont began to look at each and every foal. Regis puffed out his chest and kept his head high to show the man that he was worthy of being bought, but the dark brown-haired man didn't seem to care. Instead, he looked at Regis and asked the blond-haired man holding him, "What kind of bloodlines does he have?"

"Probably one of the best here, sir," the blond answered, swallowing. "He was bred and born here. His sire is King Ian and his dam's known as Ophelia. King Ian is the best stud around." Regis smiled as he heard this.

Mr. Dumont regarded the taupe gray donkey colt for only a moment before he simply said, "No. I won't take him." Then he walked away from Regis to continue looking at the others.

Lazarus became nervous as the man drew closer to him, not seemingly pleased with any of the foals, and before the foal knew it, Mr. Dumont was right in front of Virginia, examining her carefully. He gripped her ears and looked at them, much to her annoyance. He roughly rubbed her back, which got the best of her and caused her to attempt to bite at the man. Mr. Dumont pulled back hastily and stated, "No; not good enough. Besides, she's better off in a rodeo." Virginia gave the racehorse trainer a haughty look.

At long last, Mr. Dumont came to Lazarus. Virginia and the other foals watched closely. If they didn't seem worthy enough to get bought, then what about him? Would the man plan on buying the sea green-eyed foal?

"Let me see him walk," Mr. Dumont told Jack. Nodding his head, the dirty blond-haired man tugged roughly on Lazarus's rope. Reluctantly, the foal followed Jack as he led him down the stage and back again. The racehorse breeder watched, slightly interested.

"So, what do you think?" Jack questioned Mr. Dumont when he brought the colt back. "Will you buy him?"

Thomas Dumont looked down at the foal for a few moments. Lazarus could see that there was no compassion in his eyes, so he guessed that this man didn't like donkeys.

"I've made up my decision," the dark brown-haired man announced. Virginia and the others pricked up their ears and leaned forward, trying to ignore the handlers tugging on their ropes.

"I'll take him!" The announcement caused Lazarus to gasp and a few of the humans watching to clap softly. The silver gray donkey colt then felt something strap around his neck; Mr. Dumont's donkey collar, no doubt. Lazarus, Virginia, and few of the other foals were led away as Lazarus's new owner paid Amos Campbell four hundred and ten dollars. There was nothing left to do and no going back.

* * *

The first half of the auction went until noon. During that time, Lazarus watched as donkeys of all ages were brought up on stage and sold to different people. Regis and Marina were bought by a riding school and were immediately led away. Trenton was sold to a ranch owner, along with Elizabeth, Dave, and Rhonda. Lazarus's lanky gray half-brother Bernard was bought by a different riding school. When the owner of that certain riding school asked about Bernard's scars, Amos Campbell told her that it was from a previous owner. Boy, did everyone at the Donkey Stockyards of Nevada get away with _everything_.

"Oh, I can't believe we'll never get to see you again, my half-brother!" Elizabeth cried as she and Lazarus stood on the left side of their pen so they could be close to Bernard. Elizabeth had a scarlet red rope around her neck while the lanky gray donkey foal's neck had an indigo rope around it.

"I'm gonna miss you a whole lot," Bernard added sadly, lowering his head.

"I'm going to miss you to as well," Lazarus said to them. "But…but at least we were still together, the three of us."

"Lazarus, you'd better say your goodbyes," Virginia told him as she trotted over. She had yet to be given away. "Your new owner's coming this way." With a nod of his head, the silver gray donkey colt turned to his friends once again. The two were looking at him with sad eyes.

"G-Goodbye, guys," he said quietly as he touched noses with the two of them. "I-I-I'll miss you both." Elizabeth and Bernard couldn't find any words to tell him. The gate to Pen #3 swung open with a clang, and Lazarus and Elizabeth turned to see Jack standing there. Behind him was Mr. Dumont.

"Let's go, you runt," the dirty blond-haired man snapped as he strode over and grabbed Lazarus by his collar. The donkey foal had no choice but to follow the man out the pen, only to stop at the opening to gaze at his two half-siblings, who gazed sadly at him. Virginia stood next to Elizabeth, her blue eyes somber.

"Come on, ya stupid donkey!" Jack growled, tugging as hard as he could on Lazarus's collar. But the foal wouldn't budge. Jack was getting impatient. With his hand, the man swatted Lazarus in the side as hard as he could before pulling him out of Pen #3.

"He's all yours now, Tom," said Jack as he handed the silver gray donkey foal to the racehorse breeder. The tall, thin man next to Mr. Dumont pulled out a black leather halter from behind his back and put it on Lazarus. Attached to the attachment ring was a rawhide rope. The thin man then handed the rawhide rope to Mr. Dumont, who gratefully accepted it.

"Mr. Dumont, why would you want this foal? He looks weak," the thin man asked.

"Because he's going to be a fast one as he gets older, Gregory," Mr. Dumont explained. "He'll have enough endurance for my race track." He gave the rope a good tug and ordered Lazarus to follow him. Reluctantly, he followed.

"So, what're you going to do about his training?" Gregory questioned.

"Well, today we'll take him back to the stables and put him in Mordecai's old stall for the rest of the day," Mr. Dumont answered. "Tomorrow, we'll put him in the pasture with the broodmares and their foals. And the day after tomorrow, we'll begin his _real_ training." Gregory nodded his head in understanding.

Lazarus heard the two men talk and wasn't so pleased with what he heard. What did his new master mean by his "real training?"

* * *

Mr. Dumont led the donkey foal outside of the large red warehouse and to the left, where they passed several pens containing foals that haven't gone to the auctions today. With his sea green eyes, Lazarus looked at the foals. Some had cuts that were bleeding and others looked a little too thin. But there were a few that looked just fine. Newcomers, no doubt, and most likely kidnapped from their old homes. But all of them were braying to him.

"Could you please look for my mother? I can't find her anywhere."

"I need some food! Before you come back, can you ask someone to bring a bucketful of oats to me?"

"I want to go home!"

"Where's my mother?"

"Please spare us some food?"

"I need milk!"

Lazarus wished he could do something, but he couldn't. Eventually, his new owner stopped at a gate, where a woman with her black hair in a ponytail stood.

"You leavin'?" she asked.

"Of course we are," Mr. Dumont replied. "We just left the auctions a few minutes ago."

The woman nodded her head before asking, "Is that your foal?" and pointing to Lazarus.

Mr. Dumont nodded. "Got him for four hundred and ten dollars."

The black-haired woman looked at Lazarus before saying, "All right; you're free to go." She unlocked and opened the gate for them. "Have a nice day."

Mr. Dumont walked past her and led his new donkey out into a parking lot. Lazarus's hooves clacked on the hard concrete as the two men walked towards a certain truck: a black 2006 Nissan Titan King Cab with a small, gray horse trailer hitched to it. Gregory stepped ahead of Mr. Dumont and opened the door to the trailer. Once this was done, the dark brown-haired man went inside with Lazarus in tow.

The inside of the trailer was slightly narrow and pentagon-shaped. The floor was strewn with hay, but the donkey foal noticed a strong whiff of sawdust in this atmosphere. At the far end of the inside was a bar, where Mr. Dumont tied the end of the rawhide rope to.

"In only two hours, you'll be at your new home, Rialto," Mr. Dumont told the foal. Lazarus pricked up his ears at the name "Rialto" and stared at his new owner as he continued. "In three years, I'm going to train you to run against my training two-year-olds, and I'll make _sure_ you come in last place in _every single_ mock race. And if you dare try and disobey, there _will_ be consequences." He then walked out of the trailer and called out to Gregory, "Okay, lock it up and let's get going."

The door slammed shut with a loud clang and Lazarus was alone. Everything was still for a few moments before he heard the roar of the truck as Gregory turned on its ignition. The Nissan drove out of the parking lot and onto the road.

Lazarus lay down on the hay-strewn ground, thinking about what'd just happened to him. _"Why does the man want me if he owns racehorses?"_ he thought to himself. _"What did he mean if I didn't come in 'last place?' And __why__ did he call me Rialto? I'm not Rialto; I'm Lazarus."_ Even though the foal had been in this world for fourteen days, he still had a lot to learn.

* * *

After two long boring hours inside the small trailer, the Nissan came to a stop. Lazarus, who could barely sleep during the trip, lifted his head anxiously as the door opened to reveal Mr. Dumont and Gregory standing there. But they weren't the only ones: next to Lazarus's new master was a woman with curly sandy brown hair and next to Gregory was a narrow-eyed man with black hair and jeans.

"So, this is the replacement for Mordecai?" the woman questioned, looking at Lazarus with no kindness.

"You bet he is, Laura," Mr. Dumont replied as Gregory stepped towards the silver donkey foal. "I've decided to name him Rialto, after that bridge we walked on during our honeymoon in Venice. And Danny's going to be his handler." He pointed to the narrow-eyed man as he spoke the last sentence.

"That's right," Danny said gruffly. "I'll be Rialto's handler, just like I was with Mordecai, who's ghost in a different place as we speak."

Gregory pulled the two-week-old donkey foal outside and handed the end of the rawhide rope to Danny, who took it, muttered and thanks, and asked Mr. Dumont, "Where should I put him?"

"In Mordecai's old stall," the racehorse breeder replied. "Leave him there for the rest of the day, and tomorrow, we'll turn him out with the broodmares and their foals." With a nod of his head, Danny tugged on the rope and forced Lazarus to follow him.

Danny led the donkey foal past a fancy red-bricked house and a stable before reaching another stable. Above the entrance was a golden Roman numeral II above it. Lazarus followed his new handler inside, where he saw horses of black, brown, chestnut, and the occasional gray give him scornful looks. The narrow-eyed man led the donkey foal past a blood bay roan stallion with crossties hitched to his halter. A red-haired stable boy was grooming him.

"How's Homelander doing?" Danny asked the redhead.

"Very good," the stable boy said, grinning. "He is, after all, the pride and joy of the Silver Sycamore Stables." With an agreeing nod, Danny walked past the horse and stable boy, still leading Lazarus.

At last, they reached the far end of the walkway. On the left was the tack room and on the right was a stall half the size of the others. Danny unlocked it and shoved Lazarus inside, stating harshly, "This is your new stall, donkey. I'll come by in half an hour to give you food. And one more thing: Dumont says you aren't allowed to go out of your stall for the rest of the day, so I hope you enjoy your new home." And then, he left.

Lazarus rushed over to his door and tried to peer out of it. Unfortunately, the opening above his door was too high, so he used his nose to smell all the wonderful scents wafting out of the entrance near his stall.

Outside the stable, past the pastures that held the broodmares and their foals and past Mr. Dumont's racetrack was a wide forest. Blocking it was a bubbling stream. But beyond that forest was an endless vast of wilderness, where wild horses ran free.

And Lazarus would soon be apart of that.

**Next Chapter: Lazarus meets the foals of the Silver Sycamore Stables, who don't treat him nicely, and his "training" begins.**

**If you're wondering about when Lazarus is going to go to the wild, it'll be in the chapter following the next one. **


	8. Lazarus's Escape

Although Lazarus was here for barely a day, he was beginning to hate it already. Danny wasn't a very nice human, and he assumed that no one else would be kind to him. After he'd left, the donkey foal patiently waited for his new handler to bring him some food. But an hour passed and Danny didn't show up.

_"What could be taking him so long?"_ Lazarus thought as he paced his stall. _"Is he running late? Or did he forget to bring me food?_ _I'm hungry."_ He decided that he'd wait a little longer.

Another hour passed and still Danny didn't come. Lazarus was getting hungrier by the minute. His stomach was growling to prove this. At this point, the silver gray donkey foal was beginning to wonder if he existed. So, little Lazarus began to bray and call out as loud as he could, just wanting to hear himself.

"What's the matter with you, runt?" a voice demanded. Lazarus stopped braying and looked towards the stall door to see Danny standing there. Although he was rather pleased to see his handler, Lazarus noticed that the man wasn't carrying any food for him.

Danny walked over to Lazarus and smacked him on the withers twice, snapping, "Be quiet! What will the others think of you? All you do is whine and complain about almost everything. As punishment, you will not get _any_ food for the rest of the day." Then, he left.

Lazarus felt ashamed of himself. He was famished, but his pleas and cries for food only got him punished, and now, he wouldn't get _any_ food. He sank down to the floor and fell asleep.

* * *

The next morning, Danny came for Lazarus, who awoke to see that Danny was carrying a small bucket. Eagerly hoping it was food, the foal quickly got up, tail wagging. To his relief, the bucket _was_ containing food, but it wasn't something Lazarus expected.

"Here's your food," Danny sneered, putting it down. "It's barley. Mr. Dumont suggested that you be fed this for today." Lazarus peered into the bucket and saw some barley hay in the bucket, but there was no more than half a pound of it. Nevertheless, it was food, and Lazarus, being the hungry foal he was, ate it all up. His teeth were already beginning to grow in, and the donkey foal saw that the barley wasn't that good. But it was the only food he got as of now.

As soon as he was done, Danny roughly took hold of Lazarus's donkey collar and said, "Let's go, Rialto. It's time to meet this year's foals."

Lazarus perked up at the word "foals." Even though he still missed his half-siblings and all his friends at the stockyards, he decided that maybe, these foals would play with him. In fact, maybe he could befriend the foals!

Danny led him outside and down a dirt path. They passed two fenced pastures before walking past a track. There, the bay roan Lazarus had seen earlier was galloping with a human was on his back. Running alongside the bay roan was a plain chestnut, who also had a human on his back as well.

"That's the racetrack, Rialto," Danny told him. "That's where _you're_ going to be tomorrow. You will run against our Thoroughbreds and lose to each and every one when you're old enough to carry a human. There _will_ be consequences if you lose." Without another comment, Danny continued walking with Lazarus right behind him.

At last, they reached a large, fenced pasture. Lazarus moved forward and looked within. Towards the far end of the pasture were five mares and their foals. He smiled and wagged his tail. Well, even though Danny wasn't kind to him, perhaps he could befriend the foals that were here.

"Alright runt, get inside," Danny ordered, opening the gate and shoving him in. Shutting the gate, he said, "Enjoy your day in here, because tomorrow, the hard work begins." Then, Danny left.

For a while, Lazarus stood there, entranced by the foals frolicking at the other side of the field. His tail swished from left to right, thinking about himself playing with them.

"I'm going to go over there and say hello to them," he said aloud before he began to trot. His head was high, his tail was still swishing, and his steps were smooth.

As Lazarus moved closer to them, the foals noticed him and stopped their playing. Two were chestnut roans, the third was a black, the fourth was a bay, and the fifth was a liver chestnut. The five watched the newcomer as he drew closer to them.

"Is _that_ a donkey foal?" asked Stardust, the black foal. She had a large white star upon her forehead.

"Of course it is," the liver chestnut foal, a colt, snorted. He had two socks on both his hind legs and a snip on his nose. "Why did our master go and buy one? We have no need for one here. We live at a racehorse farm, not a petting zoo. Only racers live here."

"It's because of that stupid donkey Mordecai," said one of the chestnut roans, upturning her nose. The only white on her was a white stocking on her right foreleg. "He got hurt on the racetrack some time ago and one of the stable boys said they had to put him out of his misery." She shook her mane and added, "Our master says that we had to get a new donkey to replace him."

"I hate donkeys," said the other chestnut roan. "They look weird, smell funny, and they're…uh…ugly." This chestnut roan had socks on all four legs and a crooked blaze spilling down his face.

"I agree with White Shoes," Stardust nodded. "I hate donkeys as well."

"We _all_ hate donkeys," said the bay foal, U-Buy-It. He had pasterns on all but the left foreleg.

"I know!" the liver chestnut, known as Wisp O'Fire, exclaimed softly. "Let's go 'greet' the new donkey and tell him about his new life here." The foals nodded their heads, agreeing with Wisp O'Fire's idea.

* * *

As soon as Lazarus was no more than ten feet away from the five foals and their mothers, he broke into a canter. Letting out an excited bray, Lazarus called to them, and to his pleasure, the five foals came towards him. Gleefully, the silver gray donkey foal slowed to a stop.

"What're _you_ doing here?" demanded one of the foals, a liver chestnut colt.

"I was put in here," Lazarus answered. "My name is Lazarus, and I—"

"You're not Lazarus," a black filly giggled, interrupting the colt. "Your name is Rialto. That's what the stable boys said."

"But it _is_ Lazarus!" the donkey foal protested.

"You say your name is Lazarus, but we _all_ know that it's supposed to be Rialto," said a chestnut roan colt. "Stardust says so and so do the stable boys. They were talking about you since last evening, when you arrived."

"Yeah, and do you know why are you here?" the liver chestnut colt demanded. "This is a place for racehorses, not for donkeys." The black filly giggled at his remark.

"I…I don't know," Lazarus admitted. "The man Mr. Dumont just brought me here."

"I'll tell you why you're here, donkey," said the chestnut roan filly as she stepped forward. "You're here because you are destined to run mock races against us when you're older. And you are also destined to lose each and every mock race, or else you'll be in big trouble. So, we'll call you 'Loser' as well!"

"Yeah! Loser!" cheered the bay. "Nice choice of name, Theta Fly!"

"Thanks, U-Buy-It."

"I know! We'll have a mock race against you, Loser," Wisp O'Fire, the liver chestnut, told Lazarus, smirking. "And if you want to please us, you'll have to lose to all five of us." The black filly known as Stardust, the bay colt known as U-Buy-It, the chestnut roan filly known as Theta Fly, and the chestnut roan colt known as White Shoes looked down at Lazarus with sadistic glee in their eyes.

"Yes, let's do it!" Stardust said joyfully. And before Lazarus knew it, the five foals galloped away, yelling, "You'd better follow us, Loser!"

Swallowing, Lazarus took off after them. He was shocked to see the foals run. Sure, he'd run against Bernard, Elizabeth, and the other two foals back at the High Hopes Ranch, and he'd run a couple mock races at the stockyards, but these foals were _twice_ as fast as him. He thought he'd never keep up.

"You're good at losing, Loser," Stardust teased. "We know you'll be a fine donkey who'll finish in last."

"Yeah, you're such a good loser," White Shoes added.

"I suggest you slow down more," Wisp O'Fire shouted brightly.

* * *

While the five foals and Lazarus ran, the broodmares grazed comfortably, saying little to each other and enjoying the nice day. That is, until the mother of Wisp O'Fire, a liver chestnut mare known as Baba Lea, lifted her head. Her brown orbs widened when she saw her son and his playmates running from a hideous-looking foal.

With a loud whinny, Baba Lea cantered at a fast pace towards her son and his friends. They instantly saw her and skidded to a stop.

"Wisp O'Fire!" she called as soon as she reached them. "Are you okay? I just saw you being chased by an ugly foal…"

"Of course we are, Mom," Wisp O'Fire replied. "We were having a mock race with the newcomer, Rialto. He's not an ugly foal, he's a donkey, and one day, he's going to run against everyone when he's old enough and lose every time." He gestured to Lazarus as he spoke.

Scowling, Baba Lea marched up to Lazarus and said, "So, you're the new replacement for Mordecai, I see. Now, know that my name is Baba Lea and that _I'm_ the lead mare of the broodmares here at the Silver Sycamore Stables. From this day forth, you will be the 'omega' of the stables. You will do as we say and never complain. You will also go by the name Rialto, whether you want to or not. I don't care about the name your mother gave you; you will be Rialto for the rest of your life. And when you're old enough to carry a human, you will obey their every command and lose to all the training two-year-olds every time. Do you understand?"

"Y-Yes," Lazarus stuttered.

"Yes, _what_?"

"Y-Y-Yes, Baba Lea." Nodding in satisfaction, Baba Lea nickered gently to the five foals and led them away from him, adding, "You're also not allowed to come near the foals unless I say so, young colt. You _will_ obey us, no matter what."

All Lazarus could do was watch her rejoin the other mares. For a moment, he thought his introduction was over, but it wasn't, for shortly after Baba Lea walked away from him, he saw the other four mares marching over. Two were chestnuts, one was a bay, and the fourth was a gray. The donkey foal stood there, unsure of what to do as they finally approached him.

"Baba Lea has said you're the new donkey here, destined to replace Mordecai," said one of the chestnuts. She had not a single fleck of white on her at all. "Is that correct?"

"Uh…yes," Lazarus admitted, not wanting to get in trouble.

"And we've heard from Baba Lea that you're to be the omega of the Silver Sycamore Stables," said the other chestnut. Unlike the first one, she had a white star on her forehead. "Is that also correct?"

"Yes, ma'am," said Lazarus, bowing his head. But then he asked, "What's an omega?"

"Humph, insolent donkey," snapped the bay mare. She had a star connected to a stripe on her face. "An omega is the one with the lowest ranking of all. He is ordered by everyone around him. If he dares to refuse an order or fights back, he'll be punished. He cannot do a thing about it."

"You'd best listen to Swift Star, donkey," the gray mare told him, haughtily looking down at him with hazel eyes. She had two white pasterns on her forelegs along with a blaze down her face. "She knows _everything_."

"Yes, ma'am," Lazarus quietly said. With a snort, the bay mare known as Swift Star added, "Since you are now the omega here, I've decided to let Baba Lea show you that you're nothing more than a mere lowlife." She stepped back from Lazarus and gestured the others to follow her lead. Once everyone had backed off, Swift Star whinnied to the liver chestnut mare, who was watching the foals. When she saw Baba Lea look towards them, Swift Star hollered, "Are you ready to put the foal in his place?"

"Of course I am," Baba Lea answered, walking towards them. Behind her, the five foals watched with enthusiasm. To this day, the silver gray donkey foal swore he could hear Wisp O'Fire say, "This is going to be interesting."

The liver chestnut mare stood before Lazarus with her head high and her ears forward. "Now, Rialto, you're to show me that you are actually worthy enough to be an omega."

"Yes, Baba Lea," said Lazarus, his ears drooping.

"Good. Your first order is to gallop around this pasture three times without stopping for our amusement. If you slow down or stop, I will order Marble-lous—" she gestured to the gray mare "—to make you run faster. Do you understand?"

"Uh…yes, Baba Lea," Lazarus said, glancing at Marble-lous.

"Very good. Now, go!" And without warning, the liver chestnut mare nipped Lazarus's hindquarters roughly. Startled, the donkey foal burst into a full gallop. The foals whinnied in amusement as they saw the newcomer run with all his might.

"Mom, why are you making him run around the pasture?" Wisp O'Fire asked, confused.

"It's too see if he's capable of running on the racetrack here," Baba Lea inquired, smirking. "Back when I was a racer, I knew that three laps around this pasture was almost equal to how long the racetrack was." Then, she hollered, "Work those legs, Rialto! Show us what you got!"

Lazarus ran with all his might, beads of sweat beginning to appear on his silver pelt. His little hooves kicked up a bit of grass as he galloped around the pasture the first time.

_"This is way bigger than the pasture back at home,"_ Lazarus thought to himself, grunting. _"But I don't want to get in trouble. I have to do as they say."_ He pushed on, continuing to grunt.

The donkey foal did okay for the first lap, but halfway into the second lap, he was beginning to tire. Baba Lea noticed that he was going from a fast gallop to a slow canter and was not pleased. She shook her head and calmly said, "Marble-lous, go and 'encourage' Rialto."

"As you wish, Baba Lea," the gray mare say with a wry smile, trotting towards the slowing foal. Wisp O'Fire and his friends stood beside the liver chestnut mare, grinning in amusement.

When Marble-lous reached Lazarus, he was almost slowing down into a fast trot. Narrowing her eyes, she cried, "You intolerable colt! You lazy donkey! I command you to go faster once more!" And before he could protest, the gray mare nipped at his withers rather roughly.

Letting out a squeal of pain, the foal increased his pace once more, with Marble-lous hot on his tail. But thankfully, after a few more steps, the gray mare stopped her attempts to bite him and watched as Lazarus continued to gallop as fast as he could.

After the second half of the second lap was completed, the donkey foal found himself running the third and final lap. Marble-lous stood by, making sure that he wouldn't slow down.

_"I have to please them; I have to,"_ Lazarus thought to himself. His muscles ached, but he refused to slow down.

Finally, it was over. Lazarus stopped in front of Baba Lea, panting heavily. The liver chestnut mare looked down at him with contempt before saying, "Very good. You've completed your first assignment. Now, I will allow you to regain your breath before I give you the next task. But for now, rest. Do not come near us until you are ready." And with a swish of her banner, she and the other mares and foals walked away from him. Lazarus's sea green eyes watched as they moved to the other side of the pasture to graze and converse with each other.

The donkey colt glanced towards the gate, where he was surprised to see Danny and another groom standing in front of it. Behind them was a wagon with bales of hay. Danny opened the gate as the other groom carried a bale of hay towards the nearby water trough. Danny then got another bale of hay from the wagon and took it in.

Close by, the mares watched the two men with enthusiasm. For them, it was mealtime. They stood back as Danny and the other groom brought in two more bales of hay before they began to bring in buckets of water and dump them into the trough. Lazarus's tongue hung out of his mouth now; he was getting hungry.

Just then, the mares and foals trotted towards the trough as Danny and the other groom shut the gate and left. It was now mealtime. They surrounded the trough and began to eat and drink. Lazarus regarded them from afar before he decided to go and join them, moving at a slow trot. It wasn't until he was only a mere ten feet away from them when Marble-lous saw him.

"Baba Lea, here comes Rialto," she whispered to the liver chestnut mare, who instantly lifted her head and looked towards the silver gray donkey foal.

"Stop right there!" she bellowed at him. Lazarus, startled by this sudden movement, immediately halted as Baba Lea demanded, "What're you doing so close to us? Are you ready to continue your training?"

"No. I…I'm hungry, Baba Lea," admitted Lazarus. "I…I'd like to eat, not to run."

"You will not do that until we are finished!" she retorted. "Since you're an omega, little donkey, this means you are to eat last when you are put into a pasture with other horses. As punishment for attempting to rebel, you are to go to the farthest corner of the pasture until we are done with our meal. I will send Marble-lous to come and get you so you can eat."

Lazarus was appaled. He couldn't believe that this mare wouldn't let him eat. Nevertheless, he said, "Yes, Baba Lea," and hurried to the farthest corner of the pasture, just as she'd instructed him to do.

_"Why are they being so mean to me?"_ he sadly thought to himself. _"I didn't do anything wrong…did I?" _He glanced towards the other mares, who were calmly eating and talking to each other as if nothing had happened. The five foals played besides them, rejoicing in the nice day.

With a small sigh, Lazarus looked in the direction of the wide forest. The trees were billowing gently in the wind, their leaves rustling every time. Somewhere beyond that forest, wild horses were galloping for many miles without a care in the world.

"Rialto, get over here!" Marble-lous's voice snapped at him. With a soft sigh, Lazarus turned and walked towards the gray mare, calmly saying, "I'm here, Marble-lous. What do you wish?"

"It's time for you to eat, now get over there!" The Thoroughbred shoved him roughly back towards the trough, where Lazarus saw only no more than six pints of water left and not much hay on the ground. He looked up at Marble-lous, who simply said, "I command you to eat the hay and drink the water." Without a single protest, the donkey foal did as she commanded. It wasn't much, but it was probably all he would be getting for now. But as soon as he'd finished, he looked at the gate and was surprised to see Danny standing there, a rope in his hand. Puzzled, Lazarus could only watch as Danny strode up to him and attached the rope to his donkey collar.

"Change in plans, Rialto," the man explained. "Looks like the racetrack will be occupied tomorrow, so we're going to start training today."

The foals, who were cavorting nearby, stopped and looked towards Danny at the mentioning of "training." They perked up in amusement and grinned at one another. "Looks like Rialto's going to start his training now," U-Buy-It observed, smirking.

"Yeah, his training," White Shoes agreed, smiling lopsidedly as the five watched the man take the donkey foal away. Quickly, Wisp O'Fire led the others to the gate as it slammed to a shut. They were silent for a few seconds before whinnying in approval. Their home's new omega was going to be working.

"Good luck with your training, slave donkey!" Stardust whinned.

"Hope we can give you more work if they don't give you so much," added Theta Fly, before all five foals laughed at their own harsh remarks and continued playing with each other again.

* * *

The racetrack of the Silver Sycamore Stables was, like many racetracks, a quarter mile long with a dirt track. The railings were painted a deep shade of blue with yellow stripes at every ten feet. Six sycamore trees were planted in the grassy center of the track, and within their shade was a small playground for the children.

A chestnut stallion cantered past Lazarus, cooling down after his run. A gray Appaloosa gelding stood near the track, a Western saddle on his back and a bridle strapped to his face. He noticed Lazarus and sneered, "Well, well, look what the cat dragged in. A donkey fit to lose."

"Hey, Danny," the man next to the Appaloosa said. "You're training Rialto today?"

"Yeah," Danny replied. "Mr. Dumont says the racetrack's gonna be occupied tomorrow, so he told me to start training him today."

"Don't you think that's a little too soon?"

"Of course not, Ollie. Mordecai was only a week old when he began his training and almost two when we started riding him. Rialto is two-weeks-old, a week older than Mordecai was." The man nodded and walked off to tend to other buisness.

Without a second's thought, Danny tied the rope that connected to Lazarus's donkey collar around the horn of the saddle and got on. He kicked the Appaloosa's sides twice and got him moving. Lazarus had no choice but to follow, his ears drooping. He trotted a few feet behind the hindquarters of the Appaloosa.

The Appaloosa gelding, whose name was Connect the Spots, had learned to hate donkeys ever since he was born. When Mordecai was alive, he would always yell curses at him as he ran on the racetrack. But there was no doubt that he partially caused the events that led up to Mordecai's euthanizing by whinnying a horrible insult at him. With a smirk, he lashed out at the young donkey with his hind hoof.

Letting out a bray of surprise, Lazarus stumbled but quickly regained himself. Danny glared back at the donkey foal but did nothing. The donkey foal shook himself briefly, for a cloud of dirt went near his face when Connect the Spots lashed out at him.

Narrowing his eyes, the gray Appaloosa did it again. Twice. The donkey foal let out another bray but didn't fall. Instead, he moved to the left of him, out of his reach.

Connect the Spots snorted in irritation. He was hoping to torment this little donkey, but it seemed that he wouldn't get his opportunity. Or so it seemed.

With a swift motion, Connect the Spots used his teeth to cut the rope that connected him to Lazarus. Danny whirled around in surprise. Lazarus almost stopped when he saw the broken rope, startled, before looking at Connect the Spots with puzzlement.

"What in God's name—" he began, but no sooner than he spoke did Connect the Spots give chase to Lazarus. Terrified by this sudden movement, the silver gray donkey foal brayed and took off into a gallop, the gray Appaloosa snapping at his heels. Danny clung onto his mount as best as he could, trying to slow him down. Off the track, six stable boys watched, half-amused, at this display before them.

"Someone stop Rialto!" they heard Danny cry from afar. "He's getting away!"

A dark-skinned stable boy by the name of Quentin was the first one to act. He snatched up a riding whip that laid on the ground near his feet and took a lasso from someone before mounting a black pinto next to him, and cantered onto the racetrack.

Quentin didn't help Danny, but instead shot past him and caught up with Lazarus. "Come here, you disobedient donkey," he mumbled before throwing the lasso. The first time he missed, but the second time was a good throw. The rope wrapped around Lazarus's neck and pulled him roughly to a stop. He let out a short bray of pain as the rope tightened around his neck.

Quentin didn't stop there. He'd been in a few calf roping competitions, which had come in handy when he worked on a cow farm in Texas. He got off his horse, rushed over to the donkey foal and grabbed him before pushing him to the ground. Quentin then took a small piece of rope and tied it around Lazarus's forelegs. When the donkey foal tried to get up, he slapped his back roughly and said, "Keep down, Rialto!" The worse part of it was that Quentin hit one of Lazarus's scars in the process.

Lazarus felt anger building up within him as he lay on the dirt ground. He hated being bossed around for no reason and he also hated it when he was punished for a small thing. He already hated his new home already. But what he didn't know was that he wouldn't be here after a few more moments.

Speaking of which, Danny was finally able to stop Connect the Spots as Quentin handled Lazarus and was storming towards him, his fists clenched. Behind him were the other five stable boys.

"Let me handle this one, Quentin!" Danny snapped at the dark-skinned stable boy. "Put him back up and let me handle him. But first, take off his collar." With a nod, Quentin undid the collar and put it into his pocket. Then, he forced Lazarus onto his feet (despite his tied-up forelegs) before handing Danny the riding whip.

"You disobedient wench! You hell-bent donkey! You intolerable peasant!" he cried as he began to strike the donkey foal's scarred-up back with the whip. The black pinto and the gray Appaloosa watched with amusement as the silver gray donkey foal brayed and cried in agony as one of the healing scars reopened and began bleeding again. Drops of blood smeared the end of the whip and dripped onto the dirt.

Our poor hero was given eighty lashes as punishment for running from Danny. This was five more lashes than the one he was given at the Black Shack. He cried and brayed, but nothing convinced his handler.

As soon as it was over, Lazarus swayed and fell to the ground, the stable boys laughing at him.

"What a lazy little thing," one of them observed with mock humor. Danny took no notice and ordered the donkey foal to get up. But he wouldn't, so the man decided to show his dominance by kicking him in the withers. But the more he kicked, the angrier Lazarus became. He just had the urge to bite and kick this awful man. By now, Danny was filled with rage.

"Get _up_, Rialto!" Danny snapped. "You're going back to your stall and staying there for the rest of the day as punishment for this! Now, stand _up_!"

The silver gray donkey foal did nothing.

"Come on, Rialto! Get up or I'll shoot you!"

Still nothing. Lazarus's sea green eyes were flashing with anger.

Finally, he became irked by the foal's stubbornness and scooped up a bit of dirt and flung it at the foal's injured back. Quentin and the other five were amused by this and began to chuck dirt at Lazarus, laughing and calling him names. This lasted for five minutes before one of the stable boys ran off and came back with a bucket of ice cold water. He pantomimed what he was going to do to Lazarus. Danny nodded at him and untied the lasso around Lazarus's neck. The stable boys threw their last handful of dirt before stepping back.

"Okay, here it goes," the stable boy snickered and dumped the bucket of ice cold water upon Lazarus. The men, especially Danny, roared in laughter and were ready to continue throwing dirt at him before the colt sprang to his feet, eyes glazing with rage.

Danny started towards him. "Now, you come with me before—" He was cut off when Lazarus belted out the loudest bray of his life, throwing back his head and lashing out at them with his hooves. He didn't know this, but his paternal great-great-great grandfather was actually a wild donkey who'd been captured at an old age. Lazarus's ancestor eventually died, but not before siring his great-great grandfather.

And the wildness that was secretly inherited from that certain ancestor had awakened inside him.

The stable boys and Danny made one attempt to recapture him, but failed, for Lazarus snapped and kicked at them before whipping around and bolted with renewed energy from the awoken wildness. It was powerful! It made him fearless! And he was going to leave the world of humans behind forever!

"He's getting away!" Mrs. Dumont shrieked. She and her husband were watching everything happen from the bleachers when Lazarus finally snapped. "Someone get him!"

Lazarus kept running, his muscles pumping. He fled from the racetrack and found himself running down a path that ran in between two pastures, one of them being the one he was in earlier. The broodmares and their foals were still in there. They saw him run by and gasped in shock.

"What is he doing?" asked Swift Star.

"I don't know, something stupid, I think," Baba Lea snorted in reply. She then galloped towards Lazarus as he ran past her and neighed, "Omega Rialto, go back to the humans!"

But to her surprise, he ignored her. Nevertheless, she continued yelling her order to him over and over again until she eventually gave up.

* * *

_"I'm going to do it,"_ he thought to himself, feeling a rush of excitement through him. _"I'm going to be free forever and never see another human again! This is it!"_ The large forest lay directly in front of him, the trees welcoming him by rustling their leaves, offering shade and shelter from cruel humans like Danny.

Behind him, the angry cries of his handler and the six stable boys echoed, but they were far off, most likely coming from the racetrack. They would mean nothing to him anymore. With a smirk and a swish of his tail, Lazarus began to slow down and walked into the forest, but not before rearing up and letting out a bray of triumph.

This was the biggest move in his early life. Never again would Lazarus feel a rough hand smack him, or a whip upon his backside. He would never again be kept in a stall and be forced to wail out his hunger and lonliness every night. And he would not and never would feel the weight of a human upon his back for the rest of his life. It was a new start for him.

He was now free.

* * *

**Yay for Lazarus! He's finally free!**

**Please, no flames and no critique!!**


	9. Into the Wild

**The River Herd is due to appear in the next chapter, I swear.

* * *

**

Walking was what he was doing as he moved through the forest. It was at a slow pace, but Lazarus didn't care. He had now escaped the realm of the humans, and things were bright for him.

Or so he thought.

Earlier in his life, the donkey foal thought that humans were kind. They'd taken care of him, his mother, his friends and half-siblings, and their parents. But now, it was clear to him that there were more cruel humans than those who were kind, and humans such as Danny, Jack, Charles, Phil, Herod, the humans at the stockyards, and the humans at the Silver Sycamore Stables were the living proofs of it. Lazarus didn't ever want to see another human in his life again.

But what about the horses he'd met so far in his life? Were they kind or cruel? Lazarus didn't know and didn't want to find out now. He had to get as far away from any human as he could get.

"Where's that little runt?" someone called out behind him, distant yet furious. "He'd better have not ventured too far!"

"Don't worry," another voice assured the first one. Lazarus's eyes widened as he realized the voice to be Danny's. "We'll find that mad foal or my name isn't Daniel White."

Swallowing dryly, Lazarus increased his pace to a slow canter. The ends of branches brushed carelessly alongside his sides as he moved past bushes. His hooves kicked up a bit of dirt and it clung to his pasterns, but he didn't notice. What he was entirely aware of was that the blood around the area of his reopened cuts had dried and made his back a bit stiff. This prohibited him from moving fast enough to get away.

"I don't see anything," Danny's voice mused, sounding closer than before. Lazarus was becoming panicked. How was his former handler getting nearer to him? Wasn't he back at the racetrack?

Shaking his head, Lazarus tried his best to ignore the pain and the callings and began to move faster. He didn't want to see another human anymore. He wanted to get to the wilderness beyond this forest!

"Wait, I thought I saw something up ahead," Danny's voice announced, getting closer. "It looked kinda silvery-ish, y'know? I think it's Rialto."

"Let's hurry; Mr. Dumont really wants his donkey back," the other voice chimed. "I'm now confident that Rialto hasn't gone too far."

Behind Lazarus came the sound of hoof beats. By now, his mind was mixed up. How could Danny and that other human be getting closer to him? And where was the hoof beats coming from? Unless…

The Appaloosa gelding and the piebald stallion back at the racetrack.

Danny and the other man must've mounted the two and are riding after him, determined to bring Lazarus back to the place where anger replaced kindness and punishments were the only sign that the humans cared about him. _"No, I won't let it be!"_ the donkey foal thought to himself. _"I never will!"_

With a small grunt, Lazarus broke into a gallop once more, his tail flowing behind him. He kept his ears forward, so that he wouldn't hear the possible hoof beats coming from behind. Up ahead, there was an opening between two oak trees. All he needed to do was reach that and freedom was his for the taking.

"There he is!" Danny's voice cried out triumphantly. "I see Rialto! He's up ahead!"

Lazarus brayed in fear when he turned around to see Danny on Connect the Spots coming at him. In Danny's hands was a lasso.

"Come here, Rialto," Danny sneered. "Come to me so I can take you back to where you belong."

The donkey foal looked from him to the opening. It was getting closer. He had to get away from Danny; he _had_ to!

_"Get away from me!"_ Lazarus's mind screamed. He couldn't be able to fight the Appaloosa who'd chased him earlier because he was too small. And if the gelding caught up to him, his freedom would be lost. So the only option left to do was keep running and get towards the opening between the two oak trees.

"Stop, now!" Danny yelled at him when he noticed where the foal was heading. Judging by the tone of his voice, he was pretending to sound frantic and desperate. "That's the wild! There are lots o' dangers in the wild! Come back and you'll be safe!"

The silver gray donkey foal paid no attention to his former handler's callings but instead kept on going until he reached the opening between the two oak trees. With a snort of glee, Lazarus looked at the landscape that lay in front of him.

For miles before him, Lazarus could see nothing except for greenish-yellow grass, with an occasional sagebrush rising up from the ground. The blue sky stretched above his head, and soft, wispy white clouds painted it. This was the wild, and the bright yellow sun shone above this all as the donkey foal continued to run. And as his legs pumped, he heard Danny's angry voice calling after him.

"Oh, so _that's_ what it's gonna be, right?" he yelled. "Fine, go ahead! Go and become a flea-bitten feral! But one day, you _will_ regret this and come scamperin' back to where you _truly_ belong! You hear? You'll regret the decision you made!"

Regret the decision he made? Of course not! He would not miss the curses and punishments inflicted on him for no reason. He would not miss the cruel treatment of the broodmares and their foals, calling him "omega" and all that stuff. And he certainly will _not_ miss the bullying the humans gave to him. From now on, Lazarus would be apart of the wilderness, running and eating and sleeping in the wide open spaces.

* * *

The donkey foal finally stopped and collapsed near a small, gurgling brook sheltered by a single, half-dead tree. Breathing heavily, Lazarus moved his head towards the cool, fresh water and began to drink from it. The water entered his mouth and flowed down his throat, giving him a shuddering relief from all that running. He was parched from it, and the water was doing a _lot_ of good to him.

After taking half a dozen mouthfuls of water, Lazarus withdrew and lay on his side, taking deep breaths. Deep down, he felt confident because he had finally become an assertive creature by running away from the nasty humans instead of unwillingly following their orders and going back into the lonely stall he was forced to stay in the night before. "But where should I sleep tonight?" he asked aloud.

He finally got up and walked away from the brook. Perched on a branch of the half-dead tree, a robin called out. Above the branch it was on, a squirrel chattered nosily at him.

"This is amazing," the donkey foal whispered under his breath. "I never thought the wilderness would be so…amazing." He began to wonder how Elizabeth and Bernard were doing without him. Perhaps Bernard was being fed some hay by human children. And maybe, Elizabeth and the foals who were sold with her were trotting around the ranch that had bought them.

A pang of homesickness hit his heart. The foal sank to the ground as the happy memories of his first days of life entered his mind. He remembered his kind mother and how he always slept against her side since the evening he was born. He remembered the times when he played with Maverick, Rita, Elizabeth, and Bernard. He even remembered the kind humans known as Mr. Dolan, Kyle, and Lizzie, and how they were so nice to him, even though Lizzie made him wear a saddlebag on his back on the day before he was kidnapped.

Suddenly, his mind chided him. _"No, no, no, Lazarus! Don't think about them; they're in the past."_

"But how can I?" Lazarus asked aloud. Somewhere far off, a young doe regarded the donkey foal with ignorance before walking off. The robin, perched on the half-dead tree, watched with humor as the colt spoke to no one.

_"Simple, really,"_ his mind explained. _"All you have to do is to stop thinking about them! I know you miss them, but you can't let it get in your way. You're wild and free, so start acting wild and free! Unless you would want to go back to Danny and Mr. Dumont, right?"_

Lazarus shook his head, got back up on his hooves, and continued walking, moving in a northeastern direction.

The sun had reached the highest point in the sky, signifying that it was noon. Here, the animals living in the Nevadan ecosystem appeared to become more active. Birds burst in flight all around Lazarus, mice and squirrels darted past his feet, and any deer nearby began walking towards the trees.

"Hey, you there!" Lazarus called down to a gray squirrel. "What's going on?"

"The Tornado Herd's coming this way," he replied. "Everyone's gotta get out of their way." The gray squirrel bounded off, with Lazarus following, ears moving to and fro once more.

The donkey foal colt blundered in amongst a clump of bushes just in time to hear hoof beats, and before he knew it, a herd of six horses arrived. The stallion at the lead was a black overo, with a perlino mare by his side. The other four horses, all mares, swished their tails and shook their manes. However, one of the mares' nostrils flared out. Her ears went forward as she snuffed the ground suspiciously. Lazarus held his breath; she was smelling his scent.

The mare, a red dun tobiano, walked up to the black overo, who was tending to a wound on his back, and said to him, "Leader Powerful Wolf, I had just scented an unusual smell; something that has never been here before; something that is out of place."

The black overo turned to her and snapped, "Well, what is it, Red Salmon?"

"Sniff and you'll see," the red dun tobiano called Red Salmon ordered, gesturing her nose to the ground. The piebald did as she told him and his eyes widened when he sniffed the ground.

"It is a strange scent," he murmured as the perlino sniffed alongside him as well. The other three mares regarded them with puzzlement and scorn. They'd never seen their leaders act like this before.

The stallion known as Powerful Wolf raised his head, angered. "An intruder is on our lands!" he bellowed, rearing up. "Mares, I command you to go and find whoever dares to come here!"

Lazarus turned tail and fled, knowing that he would get hurt if the piebald stallion came upon him. He did not look back, and he certainly did _not_ wish to see him again.

* * *

Safe from the would-be wrath of the black overo stallion, Lazarus halted in the middle of a forest. Collapsing to the floor, the donkey colt lay there for a long time, listening to the call of a robin, the chatter of a squirrel high overhead on a branch, and the rustling of the leaves as the tree swayed in the early afternoon breeze.

_"What am I to do?"_ Lazarus finally thought to himself. _"I don't know where I should go, I don't know where to sleep, and I don't know where the High Hopes Ranch is."_ He was already thinking about finding the first place he called home.

"But I can't give up out here," he said aloud, standing up again. "I'm going to live in the wild, and that's that. Yeah...I _will_ be part of this place and live like how everyone else does. But where should I go to?" He gazed about the forest without a single thought entering his mind. But then something came to him.

"I'll go find a herd of horses," he finally declared. "I can ask if I can join them and I won't be so alone. Yeah…it'll do. I'll become part of a herd."

But then he saw that this forest could be a safe haven for him. The humans who lived at the Silver Sycamore Stables would never find him here. With a simple shrug, Lazarus decided that he'd wait here until it was okay for him to go out and find a herd of horses. Besides, he knew that Danny and the other stable boys wouldn't have the guts to come out here and look for him…right?

* * *

"He _has_ to be around here somewhere," Danny stated as he rode on Connect the Spots. "As soon as we find him, I'm going to give him a punishment he won't soon forget."

When the donkey foal known as Rialto had fled out into the open, the donkey foal's handler decided to let him go and returned to the stables. But Mr. Dumont had wrathfully ordered him to go out into the wilderness and find the foal again. "I did not waste four hundred and ten dollars for nothing," he added as Danny, Quentin, and two other stable boys mounted their horses and galloped off into the forest beyond the pastures.

"I'm gettin' sick of this," Quentin announced. He was riding the piebald horse. "Can't we just go home?"

"Not until we find Rialto again," Danny replied. "That deliquent is going to be in a lot of trouble when we catch him." He patted the riding whip that was strapped to the side of his jeans.

"Y'know, I heard from Mr. Dumont's friend that last year, his jenny had birthed a fine colt," said one of the two stable boys as he sat atop a bay mare. "We can try to persuade Thomas to forget about Rialto and go and get that colt before someone else does."

"Yeah," added the other one, riding a skewbald. "We could try. Let's go back."

"Not yet," Danny snapped. "First, we're going to find Rialto. If we are unable to find him, then we'll head back and declare that he's dead; killed by coyotes or a cougar. Only then will we persuade Tom to buy that foal you spoke of, Brandon."

"What kind of punishment are you planning on giving him, Dan?" Brandon questioned after a brief moment of silence.

"One he'll never forget," Danny slyly answered. "This punishment will leave him listless until we get him back to Mr. Dumont. It'll be the punishment of all punishments; one that'll keep Rialto from running away for the rest of his life."

"Wow, that's amazing," Mike, the one riding the skewbald, gasped. Danny grinned.

"I can't wait until I see the expression on that donkey's face when we capture him," Brandon declared.

"Me neither," Quentin added. "I bet he'll be so scared that he'll be beggin' for mercy." The four men laughed in agreement.

Apparently, to make sure they find Rialto faster, they brought with them a German Sheppard/bloodhound mix known as Rex. Quentin had given him the donkey collar Rialto was wearing to get the scent before they ran off in pursuit. Rex was one of those dogs who did not like donkeys. Had he been running in pursuit without his humans, he would use his teeth to bite and tear the poor donkey colt to a bloodly pulp. But maybe, since these four men hate donkeys as well, they might let him get a chance to sink his fangs into dull-looking pelt.

The bloodhound mix had his head low to the ground, sniffing the grass when he happened upon a new yet familiar scent. He stood in place and eagerly inhaled great gulps of this scent. Rex knew the smell from earlier: donkey.

"What is it, Rex?" Danny demanded. "Did you find somethin'?"

Rex barked three times in response and thrust his nose towards the northeast.

"Good God, he's found the donkey!" Quentin exclaimed. "Atta boy, Rex; you've got the scent! Now, take us to him, on the double!"

With a confident bark that evolved into a malicious growl, Rex cavorted in the direction the scent was heading to, Danny and the three stable boys in pursuit, whooping in triumph.

* * *

Lazarus stepped out of the forest and back into the afternoon sunlight, inhaling the wonderful new scents of this place. It was going to be a whole new start for him. Boldly, he began to march, with his head arched, his tail lifted, and his sea green eyes sparkling with delight. Everything was going to be good for him.

That is, had he not heard the sounds of barking drawing closer.

"Barking?" Lazarus wondered. "What kind of animal barks?"

Almost instantly, something slammed into his side, causing him to bray out in fright as he tumbled over. He tried to get up, but the something bit him hard and snarled, "Stay where you are, delinquent. You're in big trouble." Startled, sea green eyes widened to see a dog looming over him. This dog was a mix between a German Sheppard and a bloodhound, with cold, leering eyes that gazed into the donkey colt's own. The dog's teeth were bared as he snarled fiercely at Lazarus, forcing him to remain subdued.

A few moments later, Lazarus heard whoops of triumph and the sounds of hoof beats. Lifting his head, Lazarus's jaw dropped when he saw which man was at the lead of this group.

It was Danny! And the other stable boys as well!

But how could this have happened? Lazarus thought that Danny had allowed him to escape into the wild! Why did he come after him again? Did the man forget that this donkey foal was no longer a domesticated creature? Or did he let him go for his amusement, and round up his pals to pursue him?

"Lookie here, boys," Danny sneered, dismounting Connect the Spots. "Rex has finally found the disobedient jackass. Good work, Rex; we'll take it from here."

"Atta boy, Rex," said Quentin as he dismounted the piebald. "You did good."

Danny, Quentin, and the other two men surrounded Lazarus as Rex withdrew. The man called Quentin took out a length of rope and forcibly tied it around the fifteen-day-old foal. With a rough tug, he led Lazarus over to a nearby tree and tied the other end around the bark.

"Keep the foal from kicking or biting, Quentin," Danny ordered. He pulled out a riding whip. "I don't want him to move whatsoever."

"Yes sir, Dan!" The dark-skinned stable boy took out a shorter length of rope from out of his pockets and tied them around Lazarus's hind legs before forcing the donkey colt to sit on his haunches, like a dog. Speaking of which, Rex was sitting on his haunches a mere three feet away, his eyes shining with malicious interest.

"No, let me go! Get away from me!" Lazarus brayed as loud as he could. "I hate humans! I hate you all!" Tears were beginning to form in his eyes as he tossed his head up and down and pawed at the ground with his front hooves.

"There's no use escaping your captors, now," Rex sneered. "It's useless to fight back. Now shut your yap and hold still for your masters. You are humans' property, and you _will_ cope with your fate, whether you like it or not, Rialto." Quentin was now ready to tie another length of rope around the slate gray muzzle of Lazarus. In response, the donkey colt violently tossed his head from side to side, refusing to cooperate.

"My name is _not_ Rialto!" Lazarus brayed, sounding louder this time. "I'm Lazarus!" A rough clout was administered to his head, and in pain, he brayed out for help.

"I can't get the rope around his muzzle, Dan," Quentin shouted, sounding agitated. "He's acting like a spoiled brat." He grabbed Lazarus's muzzle and was about to rub the rope against the side of it when the silver gray donkey foal roughly nipped the palm of Quentin's hand. With a shout, the dark-skinned man stood up and kicked him in the flank. This caused Lazarus to fall over onto his side, his forelegs feebly kicking out and his head lifting and falling to the grassy earth.

"Forget it, Quentin," Danny announced. "Here; let me do it."

Quentin stepped aside as Danny moved up to the fallen donkey foal. He was about to grab a firm, painful hold of him and forcibly pull him up when he heard Connect the Spots whinny in shock and pain.

"Look over there!" one of the two stable boys shouted, pointing. There, administering bites into the gray Appaloosa's withers and sides was a silver buckskin stallion with stockings on his left legs. Close by, a liver chestnut mare was striking the bay mare with her fore hooves.

"Mustangs!" Danny exclaimed. "Chase 'em off!"

"What about the runaway?" Quentin asked, pointing to the fallen young donkey.

"Leave him be for now; we've gotta chase these wild horses off!" As he said this, Danny charged at the silver buckskin, waving his hands and shouting curses. Immediately, the wild stallion stopped attacking Connect the Spots and whirled around to face Danny, whose anger slipped into fear quickly as the man stood there and gaped at him. With a snort, the silver buckskin head butted Danny.

The donkey foal Lazarus was still lying on the ground and feebly struggling to get back up. His side was sore as well as his back. He was feeling miserable right now, but it all faded when he looked up to see the liver chestnut mare coming over to him.

"Are you all right, little one?" she asked him.

"N-N-Not r-really," Lazarus stuttered. The liver chestnut mare nodded, to show that she understood his cause before lowering her head to cut the ropes that bound him. First, she cut the rope around his neck, allowing it to drop to the ground. Then, being delicate, the wild mare cut the rope that tied his hind legs together before urging him to stand up, mumbling, "Little ones like you shouldn't be going through this cruelty. It's not right. Now, come with me."

Sea green eyes watched as the liver chestnut mare blundered into the forest before he cantered behind here. Behind him, Danny and the other men were trying to control the silver buckskin. "Wh-Where are you taking me?" he asked.

"Somewhere safe," was all she said.

The liver chestnut mare came upon a dirt path and followed it, Lazarus in tow. All the while, he was wondering of where she was going to take him. The mustang and the donkey foal moved past rabbits as they chewed on grass and let the ends of branches rub against their coats.

When they were a safe distance from the fighting, the liver chestnut mustang halted, almost causing little Lazarus to bump into her. "Wh-Wh-What are you d-doing n-now?" the young donkey half-stuttered.

"Simple, really," the liver chestnut mare told him. "All you have to do is keep moving down this path, and as soon as you come upon an oak tree that is half-deceased, go to your left. Only then will you find the solution to your problem." She began to step away from Lazarus, adding, "I must go back to see how my mate is doing. Good luck, little one."

"Wait, what's your name?" Lazarus called after her. In response, the mustang looked over her shoulder and told him, "My name is Red Arrow," before cantering back down the dirt path.

* * *

**I am known as Kino Lala on , for those who want to know ;)**

**Also, I'm thinking about doing a story with fish (like "Finding Nemo"). What do you guys think?**


	10. Meet the River Herd

**Happy New 2009 everybody,!!!**

**This is the new chapter and the 1st one uploaded for the year!!! :)**

* * *

Lazarus took a deep breath and looked down the dirt path. "Keep walking until you reach a half-deceased tree, then go left," Red Arrow's voice directed him in his mind.

"Right, I have to do as she says," Lazarus whispered to himself, so no one would hear. "Red Arrow seems nice enough to save me from those awful humans…maybe she's going to protect me." He smiled at this.

The little donkey foal looked back towards the path and began to walk down it, his ears forward and alert. No halters permitted his movements by pulling him back with a rough tug, no whips cut his pelt, and no humans were there to hit and grab and shove him. It was a good feeling.

A shrill bark rose up in the air and was quickly followed by a yelp of pain. Knowing that it came from the dog called Rex, and the fact that either Red Arrow or the stallion could've hurt him; Lazarus increased his pace to a slow canter, always repeating to himself, "I'm never going back to the humans."

As the donkey foal cantered, he wondered about what would happen after he found the half-deceased tree. Red Arrow only told him that once he went west of it, he would find his solution, but she wasn't specific about it.

_"Maybe Red Arrow lives with a herd of horses that I can join,"_ Lazarus thought to himself. _"Yeah…I can join them and I won't be worrying about anything at all."_

No ropes kept the donkey colt down, for they'd been cut by the liver chestnut mare earlier. This was good for him, for it meant that he was going to be part of the wilderness.

Finally, he reached the half-dead tree Red Arrow had mentioned. Instinctively, he set off to his left at a fast trot, hoping that the solution Red Arrow mentioned to him was a good one. His little hooves left hoof prints in the dirt ground. And as he drew closer, he began to suspect that he could hear snorting, hooves pawing against the earth, and talking. A herd of wild horses, no doubt. Lazarus kept moving towards the sounds.

At last, he reached the edge of the forest, and it was there that he halted. Lazarus lowered his head and peered out beyond, reminding himself about the encounter with the Thoroughbreds back at the Silver Sycamore Stables. There could be a chance that the horses he was going to meet wouldn't be so friendly with him.

Taking a deep breath, Lazarus pushed his way through the foliage and gasped as he gazed out at what lay in front of him.

About twenty feet from where the donkey foal was standing, there grazed a herd of six horses. His heart clenched; wild horses! But he saw that they weren't the same ones he saw on his fourth day of life. The six horses' backs were to him and they appeared to be having a conversation with one another.

What else made Lazarus's heart clench were six foals playing not too far from where the adult horses were standing. The silver gray looked from the foals to the adults and then back to the foals again, his green eyes shimmering with interest.

Should he go play with the foals?

Or should he call out towards the adults?

Lazarus still stood there and debated over his next move. During his short time at the Silver Sycamore Stables, the foals and their mothers resented him, even when he acted nice to them. The reason why was because they hated donkeys. But these wild horses have probably never seen a donkey in all their lives. Would they give him a chance?

He decided to just walk up to the adults and say hello to them first.

The donkey foal stepped out of the woods and started moving towards the adults at a fast walk, making a guess that if he talked to _them_ first, then things would go smooth for him.

But he was only a few feet away from the shelter of the trees when one of the adult horses lifted her brown head. The donkey foal's heart skipped a beat as she stared at him for a long moment before dipping her head. The donkey foal took another few steps before the brown mare, along with two of the other mares, lifted their heads and looked in Lazarus's direction. This got the remainder of the horses looking in the same way, wondering what the problem was.

Lazarus gulped when he saw that the brown mare, a dunalino, and then a grulla began to march towards him. He hoped that they didn't treat him as badly as the broodmares did. They had not been so friendly to him, and therefore, he didn't deserve to live alongside them.

The three of them stopped three feet away from the donkey foal and stared at him for a long moment. The brown mare (actually a bay pintaloosa) nudged her companions' noses with her own before she stepped towards Lazarus.

"Hello, little one," she greeted him. "Who are you? Where did you come from?"

"Uh…" Lazarus was a bit nervous. "I...my name is Lazarus, and…I came from…the humans."

"What? Humans?" gasped the dunalino. "That's just awful!" She moved up towards him. "Are you okay? Did they hurt you?"

Lazarus had no choice but to nod his head. This had the dunalino mare say, "Oh, don't worry; you'll be safe with us." The grulla horse (a gelding) just kept back and stared at the donkey foal, who averted his gaze.

"Follow me, Lazarus; we'll wait until our leaders return." The bay pintaloosa urged him, nudging him gently.

Crow Scratch watched Spotted Cloud lead this new foal towards the herd. Green Fern moved alongside him and asked, "I don't mean to be rude or anything, but that is a strange-looking foal. Don't you think, Crow Scratch?"

"That's not just any foal, Green Fern," the grulla rejoined. "That's the offspring of a donkey. When I was still living with the humans, some donkeys didn't get fair treatment. In fact, most of the donkeys I knew were treated like waste. I'll bet that young foal was among the mistreated ones."

"Maybe he is shy," Green Fern guessed. Crow Scratch frowned at her as he said, "I know he's been maltreated. See those whitish lines on his back? Those must be scars. And look, one of them is bleeding. Believe me, Green Fern; that foal had to have suffered at the hands of humans. When the leaders return, we must convince them that he should stay."

As he and the bay pintaloosa approached the herd, Lazarus began to grow shy when he saw that the mares _and_ the foals had stopped what they were doing and stared at him. The donkey foal averted their gazes. A silver bay colt trotted up to them.

"Spotted Cloud, who's this?" he asked.

"Flame Gust, I'd like you to meet Lazarus," the bay pintaloosa announced, gesturing to the donkey foal. "Lazarus, this is Flame Gust, the son of our herd's leaders."

"Where'd he come from?" asked a red dun filly as she came up besides Flame Gust. The other foals took up suit and moved up alongside the silver bay colt, all asking the same question.

"I…I lived…with…humans," Lazarus shyly admitted. "They…weren't so…nice…to me." Well, the ones who kidnapped him and those who worked at the racehorse farm were the cruel ones. But he didn't say anything about the humans who worked at the High Hopes Ranch.

"Hey, look!" one of the mares exclaimed. "The leaders have returned!" All attention went from Lazarus (much to his relief) towards the trees, where they looked on with gaiety to see Red Arrow and Lake Eyes standing proudly before them.

The mares and Crow Scratch trotted forward to meet them, followed by the foals. Lazarus wanted to stay back, but at Flame Gust's urging, he followed at a safe distance. Even though he'd met Red Arrow, he wasn't so sure if Lake Eyes would like him.

"Leader Red Arrow, we have something to tell you," Spotted Cloud told her as she got close enough. "Just moments ago, a young donkey by the name of Lazarus had wandered in—"

"I know, Spotted Cloud," the liver chestnut mare interrupted. "Lake Eyes and I had been patrolling when we saw four humans and a dog ganging up on the poor young one, and so, he and I appeared, fought the humans, their horses, and their dog off, and saved the young donkey in the process. I was able to direct him to you for his own invulnerability." The herd listened to their story with wide eyes.

"Speaking of which, where is the young donkey?" Lake Eyes wondered.

"He's right near me, Father!" Flame Gust proclaimed. He glanced over at Lazarus and whispered, "Go, donkey. Go and meet my parents." He nudged his shoulder.

With a sigh, Lazarus reluctantly jaunted up to Red Arrow and Lake Eyes, ignoring the stares from the others. _"If I be very nice to them, then maybe they'll let me stay with the herd,"_ he thought to himself. _"I hope they're nice enough."_ He reached the two and politely introduced himself to Lake Eyes before asking, "Will you let me stay here?"

"Young one, my mate and I have witnessed you being attacked by humans," Lake Eyes confessed. "I guess we have no choice but to let you become a member of the River Herd." The donkey foal's green eyes widened at the stallion's approval. But it didn't stop there. Lake Eyes carried on: "But on a few conditions. First off, you must have endurance."

"What is endurance?" Lazarus catechized with puzzlement.

"It means if you have what it takes to survive," Red Arrow rejoined. "You must be agile, gallant, and robust enough in order to live out here. This is no game, little one; this is the wild, and you must have endurance in order to live in it." Lazarus nodded to show her that he understood. But how was he able to become as enduring as the mustangs?

"The next condition is the edicts of our herd," Lake Eyes stated matter-of-factly. "You must be able to abide by them in order to be with the herd. There aren't many, but they're important to us."

"Like which ones?" enjoined the green-eyed donkey foal.

"Well, one of the edicts is that you must _not_ venture off from the herd near sundown," Red Arrow replied, her green eyes meeting his own. "Most predators come out after the sun sets, so Lake Eyes and I want everyone to stay together for their own safety. And if you don't want to be near the humans ever again, then I advise you to stay with the herd at all times. Do you perceive this, little one?"

"Of course I do," Lazarus rejoined as he nodded his head. "Is there anything else?"

"Yes, there is," Lake Eyes told him. "In order to become part of our herd, you must have your name changed. To feel like you are becoming one with our surroundings, you must be given a new name that'll suit you. In our herd, lead stallions give human-raised horses new names. Now, what did the humans call you _before_ you came here?"

"They…called me Lazarus, sir," said the donkey foal. "That was the name I was given when I was born."

"Lazarus, is it?" The foal nodded. "All right, then. But hearken to this, donkey: from this moment on, your name will no longer be Lazarus. Since you will be apart of our herd _and_ a part of this vast wilderness, I will change your name, and when others ask you your name, you will tell them what I've given you. The name you have is one of the symbols of humanity, as are the scars upon your back."

Lazarus took a deep breath and waited quietly for the stallion to give him his new wild name. Lake Eyes nodded and announced, "From this day forth, you will be baptized as…Gray Hoof."

_"Gray Hoof,"_ the donkey foal repeated in his mind. To him, it sounded like a bold name, but somewhere inside his own mind, a thought came to him: why did it sound so familiar?

"Leader Lake Eyes, who'll care for the young donkey?" Green Fern inquired. "One of us _should_ take him in, but we all have foals this year. We can't just let him fend for himself."

"_I_ will." Spotted Cloud lifted her head. "I'll take Gray Hoof in and raise him alongside Leaping Puma. They will be brothers."

"Are you sure, Spotted Cloud?" Red Arrow demanded.

The bay pintaloosa nodded her head. "Do you not remember the twins I had before? It'll be just like that." The two leaders nodded their heads. Many thought Spotted Cloud would not be successful at raising Giant Stag and Bright Rainbow, but the pintaloosa managed to work it out. Turns out she had been a twin herself.

The mares and foals backed off from the leaders and went back to what they'd been doing before. Spotted Cloud followed Flying Dove and Desert Wind, but she had barely gotten a few feet from Gray Hoof before she turned her head to look at him. "Are you coming, Gray Hoof?" she questioned him.

The newly-named donkey foal followed behind his new guardian as if he'd been called Gray Hoof all his life.

* * *

**From here on out, Lazarus shall now be known as "Gray Hoof."**

**Update 7-26-09: Just saw that somehow, Spotted Cloud knew Lazarus's name when he didn't say that (WTF?), so I went back and redid the part where the mares see him. :P I also did a little improving on the part where Spotted Cloud mentions her twins (I even gave them names!!!)**


	11. New Life and New Plot

**Sorry for that long wait!! I had other stories on my fictionpress account to work on as well as the Supernova Herd!!!

* * *

**

Two weeks slipped by since Lazarus, now known as Gray Hoof, had joined the River Herd. During that time, he found himself being accepted by every member of the herd. Spotted Cloud was able to introduce him to every member of the herd, including the foals, who acted _very_ polite to him and welcomed him into the herd with open arms. For the first time since he'd been kidnapped from the High Hopes Ranch, Gray Hoof felt safe. Even though they were not donkeys, he didn't care. At least he would be protected.

Spotted Cloud was able to successfully raise him and her son Leaping Puma together, just as she'd promised the leaders. Her colt had already taken nicely to Gray Hoof. He was thrilled to have a brother, even though his brother was not the same species as him.

Today was a calm, peaceful day. Big, puffy clouds loomed overhead as the herd settled near a pond. The adult mares scattered around the lake, Lake Eyes and Red Arrow checked the surrounding area for any signs of danger, and the foals were off to the side playing.

"Okay, Gray Hoof, if you want to be like one of us, you're going to have to play the games we play," Flame Gust instructed. Gray Hoof was standing in front of the blood bay colt, with Playful Cricket and Leaping Puma on either side of him.

"Okay, then. What games do you play?" the donkey foal inquired, tilting his head.

"Oh, not many," Playful Cricket answered. "We play tag, 'Follow the Leader,' hide-and-seek, and even race."

Gray Hoof perked up. "Race? I like to race."

"That's good, then," Flower Song assured him. "You can beat Flame Gust in a race." The blood bay colt snorted and piped, "Very well. I will accept his challenge."

Gray Hoof pricked up his ears. "What? I didn't challenge you."

"Too late," Yellow Lily whispered in the donkey foal's ears. "Since he's the leaders' foal, he can simply put one of us in a race against him even if we do not say we challenge him. But don't worry; if he wins, Flame Gust doesn't rub it in your face. He races for fun." Gray Hoof nodded.

"Come with me," Flame Gust commanded, motioning with his head. The foals and Gray Hoof followed him, the latter asking where they were going.

"To find a spot where you and I can race," the blood bay colt rejoined. "Now hurry up; we haven't got all day."

The foals trotted further away from the adults. Unfortunately, the ones born two springs ago were not around to watch this year's young; in the River Herd, it was a custom for the two-year-olds to leave before the first mare gave birth.

"Here's a nice spot to race," Flame Gust declared as he and the other foals stepped onto a meadow nearby the pond. A lone elm tree stood in the very center. Gray Hoof looked over his shoulder to see that the River Herd mares weren't far from the meadow. That was good.

Flame Gust turned to the donkey foal. "Here's how it will happen," he explained. "You and I will—"

"_I'll_ race," Leaping Puma announced, stepping alongside his adopted brother.

"If Leaping Puma's going to race Flame Gust and Gray Hoof, then I'll join in, too," Playful Cricket declared.

"So will we," Yellow Lily and Gold Snake added. Flame Gust was astounded; this had never happened before. He glanced at Gray Hoof. Something about this foal made him suspicious.

"Fine," he sighed. "Let's just race now."

* * *

As the foals prepared to race, Flying Dove and Green Fern spoke to Spotted Cloud.

"How is it?" the cremello mare inquired.

Spotted Cloud's hazel eyes met Flying Dove's blue ones. "How is what?"

"Raising little Gray Hoof, that's what. You _are_ his new mother, after all."

"It's just like raising a foal of your own," the pintaloosa simply stated as she shook her mane. "You have to set limits, make sure he is fed…all those things."

"Leaping Puma likes him as a brother," Green Fern pointed out before changing the subject. "What do you think will happen when Powerful Wolf finds out there is a donkey among us?"

As an answer, Spotted Cloud exhaled through her nose and simply said, "I don't know."

"He better not kidnap _or_ kill Gray Hoof," Green Fern quipped, pinning her ears back. "The poor foal's been through enough. I mean, you all saw his condition when he first arrived, right?" The bay pintaloosa nodded.

"But he's recovered nicely and playing with the other foals," Flying Dove pointed out. Nothing was said after that as the cremello, the bay pintaloosa, and the dunalino watched as the six foals and Gray Hoof begin their race, the whinnies and brays mingling together in an unusual choir.

* * *

Since she'd smelled that peculiar smell two weeks ago, Red Salmon was ordered by Powerful Wolf to spy on the River Herd, presuming that the smell had something to do with them. _"Maybe if I find the possessor of the strange smell, then maybe Powerful Wolf will become more interested with me than his precious mate,"_ she thought to herself. Her position was on a ridge overlooking the River Herd's relaxing place for today. Behind the ridge was the resting place for the Tornado Herd.

Red Salmon wasn't as lovely as Lavender Scent, which made the former jealous. The tobiano had no markings anywhere on her face, but she did have a white pastern on her right hind leg. Her eyes were just a plain, ordinary brown, and a large patch of white went sloping down either sides of her barrel, making it seem a human had poured paint on her back.

As a foal, Red Salmon's mother had not loved her that much because the red dun tobiano was not as gorgeous as her mother. Her father would roll his eyes every time Red Salmon would proclaim she was going to be beautiful. As soon as she was old enough to leave her birth herd, the mare wasted four years seeking a stallion who would consider her a worthy mare. But unfortunately, it seemed to her that she came across the herds that were interested with looks.

Then, one day, when she was six, Red Salmon met up with Powerful Wolf, who had only taken her into the Tornado Herd because Lake Eyes had more mares than he did. When she was being led away to her new herd, the brown-eyed mare was thrilled because she thought that the black overo stallion would make her his lead mare, even though he had not mentioned anything about it to her. But as soon as Lavender Scent introduced herself to her, Red Salmon's heart sank, but she remained loyal to Powerful Wolf, hoping that the two would create a foal together.

"I've been a Tornado Herd mare for three years, and he doesn't even glance at me during mating season!" she muttered before emitting a snort. She inched closer, keeping her eyes locked on the seven River Herd foals racing.

Red Salmon raised an eyebrow. "Wait, seven?" she thought to herself. "But there were six the last time! How could this be?" This mare was highly aware of the fact that one of the adults in the enemy herd was, in fact, a stallion, but could not reproduce. Did Lake Eyes take in a mare that was close to birthing after the failed attempt to overthrow him?

She looked towards where the mares were. "Doesn't look like it," she whispered. "I don't see an unfamiliar face." Returning her gaze to the foals, the brown-eyed mare could make out a silver gray foal among them. But there was something strange about that one. His ears were long, he did not have much hair on his tail, and he was shorter than the other six.

"It's not a foal, it's a freak!" Red Salmon gasped, backing up. "The River Herd's cursed itself with a freak! This I _have_ to tell the leaders!" She high-tailed it out of there and back to her herd.

* * *

Powerful Wolf did not have any foals the previous year, nor the year before, due to the fact that he needed to overthrow Lake Eyes so badly. However, this year was going to be different. After persuading him, he and Lavender Scent shared some "special time" together exactly six nights after the fight with both the River and Willow Herds' leader, and the "special time" was repeated with a bay mare called Running Lark two evenings later. Right now, he was lying on the grass, with Lavender Scent cuddled against his chest and Running Lark leaned against his side. The rest of his mares, seven in total, were gathered around them and eagerly looking at their lead stallion.

"It's about time the Tornado Herd's leaders have a prodigy," Lavender Scent mused. Powerful Wolf nodded in agreement.

"Will there be any _other_ prodigies, Leader Powerful Wolf?" a chestnut mare named Dancing Fox inquired.

"Yes, Leader Powerful Wolf," agreed Golden Oak, a silver bay roan mare with amber eyes. "A leader like you should be prosperous and have the number of foals be the same as the evening sky's stars." The rest nodded with her.

Before Powerful Wolf could answer, Red Salmon charged in onto the scene, neighing.

"What is it, Red Salmon?" the overo demanded, standing up. "What have you seen from the River Herd?"

"Leader Powerful Wolf, you'll never believe this!" the red dun tobiano mare gasped. "I saw…I saw…"

"You saw a _what_?"

"This ugly gray foal! That's what that smell was; the ugliest foal you'll ever see! A total freak!" Lavender Scent and Running Lark frowned at Red Salmon, frustrated that they could not even get a quiet moment with the leader without someone ruining it. The other mares, however, were mumuring to one another.

"An ugly foal?"

"That can't be right."

"Lake Eyes has _six_ mares, who _all_ had foals this year. How could there be another one?"

"It _had_ to have been adopted."

"Lake Eyes and Red Arrow don't even have a clue about what they just did! Taking in a freak!"

"Powerful Wolf, my darling?" Lavender Scent inquired as she got back on her feet. "What do we do?"

There was a long pause. "We don't do anything right now," Powerful Wolf stated finally. "If Lake Eyes is planning on taking an ugly foal into the herd, then that'll be fine with me…for now."

"What do you mean?" a mare inquired. The black overo stallion glared at her, saying, "If this foal becomes a disgrace to the River Herd, then we'll stay away from them as the foal slowly begins to degrade Lake Eyes's pride. Red Salmon, you are to keep your watch over the herd and report back every night to see what is going on. As soon as we hear from other herds about what they think of the River Herd's leaders with an ugly foal, then we'll strike and finish him off." Red Salmon bowed her head before cantering off.

"Leader Powerful Wolf, what will become of the ugly foal Red Salmon told you about?" Running Lark asked.

"We'll _destroy_ it."

* * *

"I win, I win!" Flame Gust whinnined triumphantly as he pranced before Gray Hoof and the other foals.

The race had been the first loss for Gray Hoof ever. It had started out with him in the lead and with Flame Gust right behind him. Everyone else had been tagging close behind, and the donkey foal did not know who was in the rear.

Then, halfway through, Gray Hoof was finding himself slowing down. Flame Gust snorted and pushed past him, with Leaping Puma and the others neighing towards the little colt to try and beat the blood bay foal. Try as he might, Gray Hoof could not keep ahead of the leaders' offspring, and that was how Flame Gust won.

"Don't worry, Gray Hoof," Playful Cricket whispered to the latter. "Flame Gust sounds stuck-up when it comes to these things, but he'll be nice again, you will see."

"Foals, come over here!" they heard Crow Scratch call out. "Your mothers want you!"

"We're coming, Crow Scratch!" Gold Snake whinnied back. The foals cantered past the gelding and towards their respected mothers. Leaping Puma and Gray Hoof went directly to Spotted Cloud.

"Mother, what's going on?" Leaping Puma inquired.

"Lake Eyes has decided to look for the Willow Herd," Spotted Puma replied. She looked down at Gray Hoof. "The leaders want them to meet you, Gray Hoof."

"Me? Really?" Gray Hoof was astonished. He was going to meet more of his adoptive kin. "What are they like?"

"Storm Leaf and Whispering Swan are nice, just like the leaders," Spotted Cloud explained as she, the donkey foal, and Leaping Puma trotted to where Lake Eyes and Red Arrow were standing. "In fact, Storm Leaf is related to Leader Lake Eyes; a half-brother, to be precise."

"That means the River Herd is related to the Willow Herd," Leaping Puma added. "So that means that you'll be apart of them, too." He smiled at the donkey colt.

"Leaping Puma! Gray Hoof! Come along!" Red Arrow neighed. "We have to get going." The pintaloosa mare increased her pace to catch up with the rest of the River Herd, her two sons tagging along right behind her.

* * *

_"Drat, they're leaving!"_ Red Salmon thought to herself frantically. She whirled around and let out a whinny. In only a few minutes, Powerful Wolf was by her side.

"Leader Powerful Wolf, the River Herd is leaving!" the tobiano breathed out before he could say anything. She pointed her nose to the disappearing forms.

"I _knew_ this would happen," the black overo muttered. "Red Salmon, wait here. I'll go and fetch the rest of the mares. We have a herd to overthrow and a freak to destroy."

"Yes, Leader Powerful Wolf."

* * *

**So here it is, Chapter 11. I put up a poll in my profile that has to do with this story.**

**Until the next chapter, have a nice day.**

**—Kino Lala**


	12. Where Are They Now?

**It's official: most of the readers voted "yes" for the poll on my profile and they did want to see what happened to Virginia. ;)**

**I also noticed there was one vote for one of the 3 options: the vote to see what happened to Lazarus's other friends, Bernard (his half-brother), and Elizabeth. I don't think I plan on showing everyone how they're doing, as they got sent to different owners. But who knows? Maybe Lazarus will—oops! I mean maybe Gray Hoof will meet up with them again. How? You'll see...**

* * *

The River Herd migrated eastward for about twenty-five miles before turning southward for about twenty miles. Gray Hoof, trailing at the rear of the herd, had never gone this far before in his life so far. His leg muscles were still aching from the race held earlier today, and he hoped that Lake Eyes and Red Arrow would stop near a body of water, whether it be a lake or a creek. He was parched.

"Keep up, little one!" Crow Scratch called to him. "We don't want you falling behind."

"Yes, Crow Scratch!" Gray Hoof called back with a huff. Noticing how far her adopted son was, Spotted Cloud dropped back to move beside him while Leaping Puma galloped ahead.

At long last, Lake Eyes had the herd stop right in front of a river. Instructing the mothers to keep close attention to their foals when they went near the water, the silver buckskin stallion trotted off by himself.

It was Gray Hoof who went to the river first. He moved as fast as he could and dipped his muzzle into the cool liquid, relieved. The donkey foal silently thanked Lake Eyes for stopping them here.

But as he was drinking, Gray Hoof was gazing into the water and saw his sea green eyes. As a result, he felt a pang of homesickness when he suddenly remembered his mother, his playmates and half-siblings, and that fateful night when he was taken away from the High Hopes Ranch for good. Not only that, but he remembered those harsh times at the Donkey Stockyards of Nevada, where he met Trenton, the rude Regis, Rhonda, Gerald, Ashton, and…Virginia.

Virginia. Gray Hoof hadn't thought about her that much ever since he was taken to the Silver Sycamore Stables, but now his mind was clouded with her memory. Gray Hoof withdrew his muzzle from the water and backed up a few feet.

He remembered how he had first seen her, telling off her own half-brother before introducing herself to him, Bernard, and Elizabeth. He remembered how entranced he had been by her beautiful light blue eyes, and how kind she had been to the trio when they, along with those others, were brought into their pen. He remembered how sorry he felt for her when she and Regis were taken to the Black Shack to be punished for fighting. And he even remembered how relieved he'd been when his last master, Mr. Dumont, decided not to buy Virginia on account of her not being "good enough" for him.

_"She was so kind to me and Bernard and Elizabeth when we were there," _he thought to himself. _"And…I never…I never said goodbye to her."_

"Gray Hoof, there you are!" The donkey colt turned around to see Playful Cricket and Leaping Puma standing in front of him, the latter holding a stick between his teeth. He giggled at the sight and asked why on Earth he would be doing such a thing like that.

"We're going to play 'Hide the Stick,'" Playful Cricket explained. "There's some cattails down the river nearby, and Leaping Puma here's going to hide the stick in it and see who can find it first. Anyone who does can hide the stick next."

"Ish fun," Leaping Puma said with the stick in his mouth. "Wanta play, brothar?"

"No, thanks," Gray Hoof answered. "I'm kinda tired from the race earlier. Maybe tomorrow morning."

"What's wrong, Gray Hoof?" Playful Cricket inquired. "You're sounding a little sad."

"Are you thinking about where you came from?" Leaping Puma inquired, dropping the stick.

Gray Hoof nodded. "Not only that, but I was also thinking about…Virginia."

"Who's Virginia?" the two foals asked simultaneously.

"Virginia was a foal I met before I was sold to another farm. She had these amazing blue eyes that…I don't know how to really describe them, but they were _so_ beautiful. And she had been so kind to me, Bernard, and Elizabeth, who were my half-brother and playmate, respectively."

"So…is she like a lover to you?" Leaping Puma teased.

"No! Well…I…I liked her, but…I never admitted it to her. We didn't know each other that long; last time I saw her, she was at the stockyards."

"Who? And what are these 'stockyards?'" Flame Gust demanded as he and Flower Song came over.

"I was talking about a filly I met called Virginia," Gray Hoof explained. "And the stockyards are where animals like you and me are taken and sold to other humans. It was a bad place. All the humans do is punish you and lock you up in these things called pens so you don't get out."

"That's scary, donkey foal," Flame Gust said sarcastically. "But what about this foal called Virginia? Who is she?"

"Oh, her? Well, I met her at the stockyards." The other foals, Gold Snake and Yellow Lily, trotted up to Gray Hoof's side as they listened to him tell about Virginia. "She was so kind to me, my half-brother Bernard, and this other foal called Elizabeth. She told us all about the stockyards and even stood up to her_ own_ half-brother when he was bothering us."

"What happened to her, Gray Hoof?" Yellow Lily inquired curiously.

"I don't know," the donkey colt rejoined, looking towards the mountains in the far-off distance. "But I wish I could see where she was right now, so I would know how she is doing."

* * *

_"This is so unfair,"_ Virginia thought to herself, glaring at the makeshift harness she wore. It was attached to a small cart filled with bags of oats. "I shouldn't be doing this right now."

"Keep goin', you little runt!" the big black-haired, amber-eyed brute snarled at her as he cracked the whip above his head. This brute was her new master, Jerome Wells, owner of her new home, the Lowe Ranch, which was two hundred miles north of Las Vegas. Poor Virginia had been here for the past two weeks, bought shortly after that little donkey, Lazarus, was taken by Mr. Dumont.

_"If I hadn't snapped at Mr. Dumont that day, then he probably would've taken me with him and Lazarus,"_ she thought to herself as she trudged on. _"I'd have gladly gone with the little guy and live at the Silver Sycamore Stables instead of here."_

Jerome Wells ordered Virginia to stop by a tiny pasture surrounded by a chain-link fence. He opened the gate, dragged a bag of oats in, opened it up, and then dumped the contents into a basin. The three occupants of the small pasture, all three of them mules, gazed at their meal sadly.

"That's all you're going to get today," Jerome snapped at them. "You all did something that caused you to get this much, and don't think I'm wrong, because I'm _not_." He cracked the whip at a gray mule.

"Don't believe him, little one," a brown mule whispered to Virginia. "We did nothing. He just says this just to torment us. We didn't do anything wrong." The donkey filly nodded.

"Let's go, runt." Jerome tugged on the makeshift harness in order to get her moving. She reluctantly obeyed. They repeated this action with three more pens before Jerome took off the harness and led her to a small pen. Like the others, it had a chain link fence, and it contained three other donkey foals, all three of them colts.

"Get in there, now," he barked, pushing Virginia in and locking the gate behind her. "One of these days, you are going to be carrying the offspring of one of these colts."

Virginia glared at Jerome before looking at the colts. The first one was silver in color, with a tan muzzle and light brown eyes. The second was silver like the first one, but he had dark brown eyes, a white muzzle, and tiny brownish spots on his hocks. The third one was cool gray in color with a tiny white star on his head, hazel eyes, and a streak of black on both his withers.

"Good evening, little Virginia," the first one greeted her with a hint of seductiveness in his voice. "How are you?"

"Back off, Carter," the blue-eyed filly snapped. "I don't have time for this. I'm tired."

"He was just asking you a little question, Ginny," the cool gray colt, Roger, teased as he placed his head on her rump. "You should just answer him instead of being a little snapper." He was the oldest of the donkey colts, at sixteen months.

"I said I'm not in the mood, Roger," Virginia said, pinning her ears back. "I've been working with Jerome all afternoon. Back off." Carter nipped her withers, which made her shriek in surprise.

"You colts leave her alone!" a donkey mare from the adjoining pen barked. She was taupe gray in color with brown-tipped ears and sepia eyes. With her pregnant belly, this jenny was as big as a house. "You don't have a right to harass that poor little filly. Be gone with you three! I don't ever want to see you near Virginia again, got it?"

The three colts glared at the adult donkey before Carter snorted. "Fine. Come along, boys." Roger scowled at Virginia before joining Carter and the other colt, whose name was Solomon.

"Thank you, Brenna," Virginia said as she turned to the jenny. "I don't know what those colts would do to me if you didn't intervene."

"No problem, young one," Brenna replied with a smile. "I've been glad to help." Ever since Virginia had joined the donkeys of Lowe Ranch, Brenna had acted like a foster mother to her, as Spotted Cloud had been to Gray Hoof. The taupe gray jenny had taught Virginia of what to expect at her new home, and what Jerome would do if he ever saw the filly misbehaving.

Virginia turned her eyes away from Brenna for a moment to look towards the setting sun. The older jenny gave her a concerned look. "Is something wrong, Virginia?"

"Oh, nothing," the blue-eyed donkey filly replied. "It's just that…there was this colt I saw back at the stockyards."

"Is this your half-brother?"

"No, not him; someone else. He was from a different ranch, named Lazarus. When he first came, I saw that he and his other two friends were frightened, so I talked to them and taught them what to expect at the stockyards. I offered him some of the milk in those milk feeders when Regis pushed him away. And then when he got punished, I was able to sympathize with him."

"What happened to the little one?"

"He got sold to a human who owns racehorses."

"It seems to me that you like this Lazarus," Brenna stated as began to groom her enlarged stomach as best as she could. "I remembered when I was younger and living at this ranch far up north. I fell in love with this handsome donkey, Frederick was his name. He and I were so close and…we conceived a foal together one fine evening. Little Ava was perfect, inside and out. My eyes and his pelt color went into creating her."

"What happened to Ava and Frederick, Brenna?" Virginia inquired.

"Well, Ava stayed at the ranch she was born on and Frederick and I were sent to this farm outside Oakland. He and I conceived one more foal before he was sent away. Ten months after he was taken, I had a handsome little colt named Richard. But my owners…they didn't know about what happened. Richard…he…was taken from me, just a few days old. I never saw Richard again." She stopped grooming to face the blue-eyed donkey filly. "And then Mr. Wells bought me to be a broodmare. This foal inside me, he's my sixth." She grunted. "And I think it's almost time for him to come out."

Virginia giggled a little. "I am sure he _or_ she will be as fast as the wind, Brenna." She giggled a little more, but then stopped and looked down at her hooves when Jerome Wells walked past the pen.

"One day I'll escape, Brenna," Virginia whispered. "I escape from Lowe Ranch and travel hundreds of miles to get away from Jerome and be free from humans. And maybe one day, I'll go find where Lazarus is and help him escape, and we'll be free together."

* * *

The River Herd remained near the river for the rest of the night and set out the next morning following the current. Lake Eyes explained to everyone that he caught a whiff of the Willow Herd as he was wandering last night.

"Don't worry, Gray Hoof," Yellow Lily assured him as she passed by the donkey foal. "The Willow Herd is nice to us. I'm sure that Storm Leaf and Whispering Swan will accept you, as will the other mares."

"And they have other foals, too!" Gold Snake cried as he hurried past.

The river emptied itself into a lake, and it was right near where the lakebed started did the silver buckskin stallion stop his herd. And there, right on the other side of the lake, was the Willow Herd. Gray Hoof's eyes widened when he saw that the sister herd exceeded the River Herd's population by three mares.

Lake Eyes sent out a neigh to them, and his half-brother answered back. The River Herd trotted calmly along the lakebed to get to them, and Spotted Cloud dropped back to walk beside her adopted son. "Stay near me, Gray Hoof," she whispered to him.

"Hello, half-brother," Storm Leaf nickered as Lake Eyes and Red Arrow reached him. "It is good to see you again."

"It is good to see you too, Storm Leaf," Lake Eyes said to him. "How are your foals?"

"Cinder Pine bore a daughter just two evenings ago. Little Running Doe has my eyes, and her mother's coat."

"That is good to hear, Storm Leaf; congratulations," Red Arrow politely commented. "We, too, have a new addition to our herd."

"You do?" Whispering Swan inquired. The Morgan nodded. "But Red Arrow, all of your mares have foals already. Unless…has the new member thrived amongst the humans?"

"Hmm…yes."

"Is it a mare?"

"No. It's a foal."

"Oh! Well now, is the foal an orphan?"

"Well…you could say that. He claims to have been separated from his birth mother. Spotted Cloud is caring for him."

"Spotted Cloud, bring him over!" Lake Eyes whinnied to the bay pintaloosa. "Let the Willow Herd see him."

"Come, Gray Hoof," the pintaloosa whispered to the donkey foal. "Come along."

"Yes, Spotted Cloud," Gray Hoof squeaked, his nose brushing close to the pintaloosa's flank. Spotted Cloud brought her foster son up to the Willow Herd leaders and presented him to them.

Whispering Swan gasped. "Oh, my," she murmured. "I…I never thought…" She couldn't find anything else to say.

"We'd take in a donkey foal? Well, none of us dreamed of it, but here he is," Spotted Cloud chirped. "His name was Lazarus, but Leader Lake Eyes changed it to Gray Hoof."

"H-Hello," said Gray Hoof shyly. The other mares of the Willow Herd gathered around him, eyes wide in attentiveness. Gray Hoof stayed as close as he could to the hazel-eyed pintaloosa as they made comments about him.

"I can't believe the River Herd would invite the offspring of a donkey to join them!"

"This has never happen before."

"So _that's_ what a donkey looks like…"

"Little small, don't you think?"

"Bizarre tail, too."

"Give him a little bit of space, mares," Storm Leaf behest them. "He is new to these lands."

"I…I am fine, sir," Lazarus piped up. "I've been living out here for a while." The mares gasped at him as if he were a rare, mythical beast.

"Red Arrow, can I please talk to you?" Whispering Swam found her voice. The liver chestnut Morgan and the black tobiano mustang wandered off to the side together.

"What is it, Whispering Swan?" inquired Red Arrow. "Does this have anything to do with the young donkey we adopted?"

The piebald mare nodded. "When I was a filly, the eldest mare in my birth herd had told me of a prophecy she'd been taught about. This prophecy says that a young donkey, bred by humans, would escape them and come to the mustangs' lands. He would join a herd and grow up amongst them, learning their ways, and then one day, he would prove himself worthy by…by…"

"By what?"

"I'm not fully sure about the last part," Whispering Swam nervously admitted. "It was either form his own herd, fight an enemy, or both…I forgot."

"Uncle Storm Leaf," Flame Gust piped up as he came up to the bay roan's side. "Can Gray Hoof play with us now?"

"Oh all right," Storm Leaf sighed. The Willow Herd mares backed off from the donkey foal and Spotted Cloud nudged him towards the other foals.

"Come along, brother," Leaping Puma said as he and Gray Hoof walked side by side. "I'll show you to the foals of the Willow Herd."

* * *

The foals of Storm Leaf were playing not too far from the lakebed, right near a clump of laurel bushes. Rising Fog, the blue roan colt the River Herd was introduced to last time, was the first to greet Flame Gust and the other River Herd foals. The other four Willow foals, excluding Running Doe, who was still too young to play with them.

"Hello again, Flame Gust," Rising Fog greeted the blood bay colt.

"Greetings, Rising Fog," Flame Gust responded. "You should be aware that we have a new foal in the herd?"

"A new foal?" asked the filly called Star Berry. "Where is her?" She was an extraordinary color, an amber champagne roan sabino with a white blaze on her face and stockings on all four legs.

"Right here!" Leaping Puma nudged Gray Hoof towards the Willow Herd foals. Like what had happened with the mares, the foals gasped when they saw the newcomer.

"What _is_ he?"

"He can't be a mustang foal. He is too small."

"Such a runt he is!"

"How'd he get those scars?"

"Where is his mother?"

"Uh…where is he from?"

"This is a donkey," Flame Gust elucidated to them. "Donkeys live with the humans, but this one got away from them and joined us." The foals gasped again.

"Where's his mother?" Rising Fog asked.

Leaping Puma replied, "Well, my mother is—"

"Impossible! A horse can't be a mother to a donkey foal," a buckskin roan named Giant Cedar interrupted. The bay pintaloosa glared at him. "As I was saying, my mother is going to be his _foster_ mother," he finished matter-of-factly.

"Yeah, Giant Cedar," Star Berry snorted. The other foals giggled at him.

"Don't get near Giant Cedar," Playful Cricket whispered to Gray Hoof. "He's a little bit too mean, and he is already trying to venture away from the herd."

"I heard that!" the buckskin roan colt charged at the dunalino filly, who leaped to the side and sped away, whinnying as Giant Cedar pursued her in what turned out to be a little game of chase. Playful Cricket led Giant Cedar through the crowd of mares until she reached her mother Flying Dove. The cremello mare squealed and nipped the buckskin roan colt on the withers, driving him away.

Gray Hoof and the other foals laughed at what they'd witnessed as Giant Cedar returned. The golden colt shook himself and, with Star Berry and Blazing Comet by his side, he ventured back down to the water.

"Remember, don't mind Giant Cedar," Leaping Puma told his adopted brother. "Don't mind him at all."

"I'll be sure of that, Leaping Puma," Gray Hoof said with a smile.

* * *

Out of breath, Powerful Wolf and the Tornado Herd stopped and hid themselves in a small forest. They'd been following their enemies intently, but they did not wake up in time to see the other herd leave. The black overo assumed they moved southward and splashed across the river, his mares close behind.

"We cannot find them, Leader Powerful Wolf," Red Salmon groaned, panting for breath. "They've gone. They are too clever."

"They have not gone, Red Salmon!" Powerful Wolf japed. "We have yet to find them. Now hold your tongue this instant, or else!" The red dun tobiano said no more.

Lavender Scent came up to her mate, and his eyes immediately softened. "How are you now, my darling?" he inquired softly. "Do you feel anything?"

"Yes, I did, before we went off." The perlino rubbed her head against her mate's withers. "We did it, Powerful Wolf. We're going to have an offspring together. And I know it'll be as mighty as you are." Suddenly, she pulled away from him and frowned.

"What's wrong, Lavender Scent?" Powerful Wolf demanded.

"Another herd is coming this way." Powerful Wolf looked ahead. This herd was a small one, consisting of the lead stallion and three other mares. Two were black and the third was a bay. The overo shook his head; he didn't want to steal plain mares like those ones.

"Stay here, Lavender Scent; I'll deal with this," he said to his perlino mate before trotting towards them at a steady pace. The lead stallion of the small herd, a flaxen chestnut with a blaze down his face, gasped when he saw Powerful Wolf and stopped. One of the black mares pinned her ears back and bared her teeth at the black over.

"Whoever you are, stay away!" she warned.

"Relax, I am not going to steal you," Powerful Wolf snorted, halting only a mere four feet away from the lead stallion. "What are your names? What is your herd's name?"

"What's it to you?" the black mare retorted. _"Feisty one," _Powerful Wolf thought to himself.

"Swift Wind, let me handle this," the flaxen chestnut whispered to her. He stepped forward and stated calmly, "I am Laughing Cloud, and this is my herd, the Larch Herd. Now, who are you?"

"Powerful Wolf, lead stallion of the Tornado Herd," the brown-eyed stallion said, not hesitating. The other black mare and the bay mare gasped simultaneously.

"Leader Laughing Cloud, run away!" the bay mare cried, backing away.

"Yes, our leader, we must get away from him!" the other black mare agreed. Unlike Swift Wind, who was all black, this mare had a giant white star on her forehead and stockings on her hind legs.

Laughing Cloud glared at his mares and ordered them to be quiet. They obeyed, and the flaxen chestnut asked Powerful Wolf, "What do you want? Since you don't want any of my mares—"

"Oh, me? I'm just here to warn you." The black overo stepped closet to Laughing Cloud, and Swift Wind neighed at the former. He ignored her.

"Do you know about the River Herd?" the brown-eyed stallion asked the flaxen chestnut. Laughing Cloud thought about it for a moment before shaking his head. Powerful Wolf went on.

"You don't? Well, I know them very well, and one of my mares told me the other day that she saw a foal amongst them. An ugly one." Laughing Cloud furrowed his brows. "Yes, that's right. My mare said that it was smaller than the rest of the herd's foals, and I heard from bird talk that…uh….oh, what was it? Oh, yes! Now I remember. The River Herd was planning on raising it to be a murderer."

Laughing Cloud and Swift Wind gasped. "A…m-murderer?" the latter murmured.

Powerful Wolf smiled smugly to himself when he saw their faces. "Yes, a murderer. One that will destroy us mustangs so he can roam about the wilderness forever! I suggest that, if you come across the River Herd, stay out of their sight. You'll never know when he'll attack." He turned around to walk back towards his herd.

"Wait!" Laughing Cloud called out. "What does the River Herd's leaders look like? We told you that we don't know them!"

"Oh, the leaders are Lake Eyes and Red Arrow," Powerful Wolf rejoined without looking at them. "Lake Eyes is a silver buckskin and Red Arrow is a small liver chestnut mare. I now bid you good day." He did not stop until he reached Lavender Scent again.

"So? What did you tell them?" she catechized him.

"I have put our plan in action," the black overo explained. "I told the herd nearby about our enemies, and their freak foal, adding that the latter would be raised to be a murderer. See, they don't know the River Herd, and as part of the plan, we will go about asking other herds about our enemies, and when they say they never met them, I'll tell them that fib about the ugly foal. It will help lower Lake Eyes's pride, and it might cause him to kick the ugly foal out. Then, you and I will take over from there."

Lavender Scent smiled. "You truly are a genius, Powerful Wolf. And I know this foal will be just like _you_."

* * *

**I'd just like to make this clear to the readers: the next chapter will fast forward into the winter months, when Gray Hoof is about seven months old. **

**Also, I'm starting to run out on names for the characters. I plan on giving the rest of Powerful Wolf's mares as well as Storm Leaf's mares and foals names and personalities. They must be:**

**-Like the names in this story (i.e. Red Arrow, Lavender Scent, etc.)**

**-Be nature-related. **

**-Feminine (what? There'll be mares, too).**

**Aaand that's about it! Until chapter 13, happy reading!!**

**—Kino Lala**


	13. Through the Seasons, Part 1

**Hey, whaddya know! I'm back with the 13th chapter of "Child of the Mustangs!" This one has some conflict added in. **

**It's a little late, I know; not only did I have writer's block, but the following things happened that caused delay:**

**-Ted Kennedy's death (I watched the funeral on TV)**

**-The death of my brother's friend (aged 17) We went to his wake and funeral.**

**-School**

**-My _JOB _(yes, I have a job; I'm part of the work program at the hospital. I am in the linen room.**

**R.I.P. Steve Bajenski **

**1992-2009**

* * *

_I dream of days without an end  
And long for sleep without the fear.  
I hope to walk through the night  
And know this will come true._

_I dream of life lived long and full,  
And long to see my children grow.  
I hope for better days to come,  
And know they will come soon._  
—Translated text of the song "Stone Language," from the 2002 movie The Time Machine

* * *

Had Gray Hoof not been kidnapped that fateful night, he would still be frolicking in the meadows of the High Hopes Ranch without a care in the world. He would still keep the name "Lazarus," play with Rita, Maverick, Bernard, and Elizabeth, and he would curl up next to his mother Cornelia every night. The humans he'd known since birth, Mr. Dolan, Kyle, and Lizzie, would still be there for him, feeding and caring for the donkeys and giving their foals saddlebag lessons. And maybe, just maybe, Cornelia would tell him all about his sire Victor.

But yet, fate had planned Gray Hoof's life like this. Everything that had happened in the past and had yet to come to him in the future had all been planned, sometimes giving and taking things in his young life. And this time, fate was bringing him changes.

After spending two days with the Willow Herd, the River Herd parted ways with the former and headed southeast, spending the rest of spring and the first weeks of summer in a Rincon, or a grass meadow, about three hundred miles away from the border of Arizona. Here, the foals and Gray Hoof reveled in the sunlight while the adults relaxed. The Tornado Herd never showed up, which was great relief.

During that time, the foals changed both physically and mentally. Once a tiny runt who was slowly coming out of his shell after being maltreated by humans, Gray Hoof was now eight and a half hands high and filled to the brink with activeness. But unfortunately, he was still the smallest in the River Herd.

Flame Gust had noticed the smallness of the donkey foal and picked on him for it. While he had been bold and full of ideas, the silver blood bay colt was now ambitious, rude, and an instigator. He would boss the other foals around and threaten them if they refused to obey him, and no matter how many times his dam would punish him, Flame Gust refused to learn his lesson. Gray Hoof swore to himself that he would teach the colt who was once his friend a lesson.

Flame Gust even flirted regularly with Flower Song, who, to the surprise of everyone, started to fall head over heels for Gold Snake. The mares did not expect it; they thought the light blue-eyed filly would be in love with Flame Gust. As a result, Gold Snake and Flame Gust's friendship became strained.

One overcast afternoon, Gray Hoof was spending time with Leaping Puma and Yellow Lily down by the Rincon's pond, chatting with one another, when Flame Gust marched up to them, head held high.

"What do you want, Flame Gust?" Yellow Lily asked him.

"I want you guys to come over to the far end of the Rincon and play tag with me and Playful Cricket," the dark blue-eyed colt ordered. "Gold Snake and Flower Song are no longer allowed to play with us until the latter falls in love with _me_. I _know_ we are destined to be together, Flower Song and I."

"Sorry, Flame Gust, but we don't want to," Gray Hoof said as politely as he could.

The leaders' child glared at Gray Hoof. "You listen good, runt," he snapped. "I am the offspring of the leaders, and you will do as I say, or _else_."

"Let me tell you something, Flame Gust," Leaping Puma said, pinning his ears back. "One, stop picking on my foster brother; he's done nothing to you. Two, Flower Song doesn't even like you. You cannot force her to fall in love with you instead of Gold Snake. And three, when we say 'no,' it means 'no!' Now go away." He reared up and lashed out at him.

Flame Gust snorted. "You want to get it on?" he demanded, baring his teeth. Leaping Puma did not answer; he reared up again, lashing out with his fore hooves. The silver blood bay colt whinnied back in response, ears also pinned back.

"Hey, a fight!" Playful Cricket exclaimed as she, Gold Snake, and Flower Song came over. The foals watched as Leaping Puma and Flame Gust lashed out at each other, calling each other names and nipping the other on the withers and face. For a moment, Gray Hoof was reminded of when Virginia fought her half-brother Regis at the stockyards.

"Stop this! Stop this at once!" Gray Hoof, Playful Cricket, Flower Song, Gold Snake, and Yellow Lily turned around to see Crow Scratch and Red Arrow cantering towards them. Leaping Puma and Flame Gust continued their scrimmage.

"What's going on here?" Red Arrow demanded angrily. "Flame Gust, Leaping Puma; cease your fighting at once!" As if on cue, the colts obeyed her. "Now, what on earth is going on here?"

"Mother, I wanted Gray Hoof and Leaping Puma and Yellow Lily to come play tag with me and Playful Cricket," Flame Gust pretended to sob. "A-And Leaping Puma, h-h-he was _so_ mean to me! He j-just attacked m-me—"

"Not true!" Yellow Lily cried, interrupting the blood bay colt. "Flame Gust tried to threaten us, Leader Red Arrow! Leaping Puma defended me and Gray Hoof, and that's how the fight got started."

"Thank you for telling me the truth, Yellow Lily," Red Arrow told her with a smile before scowling at her son. "As for _you_, Flame Gust, you are to go back to the others mares and stay with me until you can learn how to get along with the others."

Flame Gust stuttered, "B-B-B-But, oh Mother—"

"Now, young one! Or I'll bring your sire over here and _he'll_ deal with this." The Morgan nipped her offspring on the rump and sent him underneath the shade of a palo verde tree, where the mares were relaxing.

"What should I do with the rest, Leader Red Arrow?" Crow Scratch asked softly.

"Keep an eye on them, of course," she answered curtly. "Make sure they stay out of trouble." She swished her tail as she walked away.

Crow Scratch led the six foals to the other side of the pond, where he urged them to lay down and then told them he was going to tell them a story.

"Oh, I know!" Flower Song exclaimed. "Tell us how my mother joined the River Herd!"

"Yeah, how _did_ Prairie Voice come here?" Gray Hoof inquired.

Crow Scratch took a deep breath and began, "It was about a few months before any of you foals were born. We were in a place where the snow was already melting…"

* * *

_Red Arrow pawed at the snow with her hooves as Lake Eyes kept an eye on her from about five feet away. Her sides were bulging with what the silver buckskin stallion hoped to be the future leader of the River Herd._

_The pregnant Morgan mare was able to dig up some tender shoots of grass and nibbled them hungrily. Lake Eyes snorted, took a glance over at where Crow Scratch was watching out for the other expectant mares of his, and then gazed back at his lead mare. __Suddenly, Red Arrow raised her head and looked ahead of her._

_"What's wrong, Red Arrow?" Lake Eyes asked softly as he trotted over to her._

_"Look," was all the liver chestnut mare said. He looked in her direction and gasped. _

_From out of the cypress trees there came a zebra dun mare, her head low, her ears drooped, and blood seeping from a gash located on her withers. Her bulging sides confirmed that she was in foal._

_Lake Eyes neighed to her. The zebra dun lifted her head, her copper brown eyes widening when she saw him. Instead of going to him, she backed away into the cypresses. _

_"Dear, let me handle this," Red Arrow sibilated to her mate. She walked towards the cypress trees at a calm pace. Lake Eyes watched her intently, praying to Equus that she would not be harmed. _

_Red Arrow reached the trees and called out, "Hello, there, young mare. My mate and I saw you coming out of the trees. Who are you? Where are you from? And what has happened to your herd?"_

_Shyly, the zebra dun mare poked her head out and said in a quiet voice, "I…I am Prairie Voice, ex-lead mare of the Ash Herd. We lived near the mountains, far from here." Her eyes were averted from Red Arrow's.  
_

_"Where is your herd right now? If you are lead mare, shouldn't you be watching over them?" Red Arrow was concerned about this new mare. _

_"I…uh…I was…there was this other herd, the Feather Herd. Their leader…he…he challenged our herd's leader, my mate, and…and…Noble Elm told me to run away and…make sure our foal survives. It…it was his l-l-last wish." Prairie Voice lowered her head again and nickered softly. "The Feather Herd's leader then pursued me, but I was able to outrun him."_

_"Oh, I see," Red Arrow apologized. "I'm so sorry for you loss. But I am sure you can stay with us. I'll just have to clear this up with my mate." The mare urged Prairie Voice to follow her to where Lake Eyes stood. _

_"Lake Eyes, this one has been chased away from the herd she once lead," Red Arrow explained to him. "She can't return. She must join us. Besides, she is expecting a child." _

_Lake Eyes thought about it for a moment. "Where is her mate?" he finally asked. Prairie Voice shook her head; she didn't want to talk about it. "Fine. She can stay, just as long as her foal doesn't cause any trouble. Red Arrow, take the newcomer back to the herd and have her introduced to everyone."_

* * *

"I never thought about my real father much," Flower Song mused after Crow Scratch finished his story and walked away from them. "I wish I could've met him."

"Didn't your mother tell you about him?" Gray Hoof asked her.

Flower Song nodded. "She said he was _very_ charming and brave. Oh yes, and I have his eyes." She fluttered her eyes at Gold Snake, who turned his head away from her in embarrassment.

* * *

When summer reached the Southwest, Lake Eyes moved the herd away from the Rincon and up towards the Yosemite National Park (referred to by the mustangs as "Great Rock Valley"). Red Arrow explained to Gray Hoof that the River Herd always went there since the time of the River Herd's first lead stallion.

Red Arrow and Lake Eyes ran at the rear of the herd throughout the migration northward, to make sure they did not lost anyone, especially not Gray Hoof, whose legs were shorter than those of his adopted kin. As a result, he couldn't run as fast as the mustangs.

This proved to be a problem for the River Herd late one evening. It was drizzling, but Lake Eyes didn't make any plans to bed down anytime soon. He and Red Arrow wanted to get to the Great Rock Valley as soon as possible, and encouraged their herd mates to move at a canter.

His leg muscles beginning to ache, Gray Hoof tried his best to keep up with the rest of the herd, but he couldn't go on. He may've been fast, but his energy right now was decreasing by the minute. How long would it be before they reached their destination?

"Move along there!" Flame Gust ordered to the donkey foal. "Can't you go any faster?"

"I'm…trying," Gray Hoof panted, trying his best to ignore the soreness. Spotted Cloud gazed sympathetically over her shoulder at her adopted son.

The herd made their way towards a small, abandoned field, where the rain that passed over from earlier in the afternoon made the ground oh so muddy. Here, Lake Eyes had the mares and foals slow themselves down to a trot, but it was quite obvious Gray Hoof did not get the message in the darkness. He continued to canter.

Suddenly, Gray Hoof lost his footing and fell chest first onto the muddy earth, a bray escaping his jaws as he went. Spotted Cloud whinnied frantically when she saw him go down and ran to his side.

"Gray Hoof, my child, are you all right?" she buzzed nervously. Mud smeared onto the donkey foal's silver chest and forelegs.

"I…I am fine," Gray Hoof sputtered, struggling to his feet. Crow Scratch watched him closely to make sure he didn't hurt his leg.

"Great, this is just plain great!" Flame Gust snorted. "Because of him, we're going to fall behind. I say we just abandon him here and move on."

"Flame Gust, how dare you say that?" Red Arrow was appalled at her colt's behavior. "Gray Hoof is a part of this herd; we're not going to forsake him because of a mere fall." Lake Eyes frowned at his son. He knew that this was not an example of proper leadership.

When Gray Hoof was back on his hooves, mud rolling down his legs, Lake Eyes and the rest of the herd continued to move at a trot. Enervated as he was, the donkey foal managed to keep going, so as to not to irritate Flame Gust. Spotted Cloud trotted beside her foster foal until Lake Eyes found a large pine tree for the foals to sleep under. The adults stood around the pine tree, keeping watch.

By the next afternoon, the River Herd made it to the Great Rock Valley. The mud on Gray Hoof had dried and stuck to his coat like glue.

"Hah, look!" Flame Gust laughed. "Gray Hoof looks like a pinto!" Spotted Cloud gave the colt a warning look before looking down at the young donkey.

"Don't worry," she told him. "When we get to a lake, you can go in it and get that mud off of you. You'll soon look clean and handsome."

As soon as little Gray Hoof had all the mud rinsed off of him, he went off to play with his adopted brother, Flower Song, and Gold Snake. Ever since the scuffle in the Rincon, the foals of the River Herd formed two separate sub-herds. The first sub-herd consisted of Flame Gust, Yellow Lily, and Playful Cricket, while Leaping Puma, Gray Hoof, Flower Song, and Gold Snake made up the second sub-herd.

"What should we do now?" Flower Song wondered aloud.

"I suggest we go exploring," Leaping Puma whinnied. "We'll just go into the forest and—" Crow Scratch was watching the foals from nearby and he came right over to them.

"Now foals, I'd like to let you four know that you are not to go far from us," he stated. "Lake Eyes and Red Arrow have wanted this rule enforced ever since the herd's last foals were growing up."

"Even my siblings?" Leaping Puma inquired. Crow Scratch nodded. "What happened?"

"Well, Desert Wind said to me that the previous batch of foals had gone missing for eight evenings while we were up here," the grulla gelding recalled. "Every mare in the herd had a hard time seeking them out, and just when they thought they were drawing nearer to their offspring, it somehow slipped away from them. All the mares were desperate, especially your mother, Leaping Puma. She didn't wish to lose her twins."

"How did they find them?" Gray Hoof queried eagerly.

"The River Herd discovered the little ones near the top of Half Dome, and how aghast the mares were when they saw their foals up there. It took a lot of effort to bring them back down, and when the foals were reunited with their mothers, Red Arrow made sure the foals were close by at all times. And that's why we do not want you to go venturing off."

"So to make sure that incident doesn't happen again?" Gold Snake inquired. Crow Scratch nodded again and walked off to the side.

Gray Hoof snorted softly. "Well, exploring is out of the question. But we can race."

"As my mother would say, it is balderdash," Gold Snake buzzed. "A little story about the River Herd's previous foals won't discourage us. We'll sneak a chance in to explore the Great Rock Valley." Flower Song smiled at him. To her, he was a clever colt.

The opportunity for the quartet came during their first night, when the herd was bedding down. Flame Gust, Playful Cricket, and Yellow Lily huddled nearest to Green Fern, while the other four stayed near Spotted Cloud.

"We wait until the adults fall asleep before going off," Gold Snake sibilated in Gray Hoof's ear.

"But what of the leaders?" Gray Hoof whispered back. "They'll be patrolling the area. We could get caught."

"They're further away from us, and we'll be back before they show up."

As soon as Spotted Cloud nodded off, Gold Snake and the other foals stood up and crept silently away from the River Herd. As soon as they were out of earshot, the quartet broke into a gallop, with the vernal silver dunskin in the lead and Gray Hoof right behind him.

The young donkey foal's sea green eyes lit up in excitement as he felt the thrill of adventure run through his veins. It reminded him of when he'd escaped the humans at the Silver Sycamore Stables all those days ago, and the scars he attained from their barbarity almost blended into his pelt.

The four foals splashed through a stream, startled a lone buck that was grazing in the moonlight, and whinnied and brayed to a flock of birds in the trees, all while the stars glistened above them.

"Gold Snake, this truly was a wonderful idea," Flower Song said to the golden colt with a smile.

"I agree," Gray Hoof added cheerfully. "This sure is a lot of fun."

Leaping Puma reared up and whinnied. Gold Snake gasped, ran over to his side, and nipped the silver bay pintaloosa colt on the barrel.

"Ouch! What was _that_ for?" Leaping Puma exclaimed as his fore hooves fell to the earth.

"Keep silent!" Gold Snake hissed in reply. "Do you want the adults to hear you? We don't want to get busted." The pintaloosa colt shook his head and murmured, "Sorry for that. Anyway, what're we going to do now? Should we go back to the herd?"

Gold Snake pondered this. "We can…hmm…oh! I know! Remember when Crow Scratch told us about when the previous foals got lost in the Great Rock Valley?"

"Uh, oh!" Gray Hoof said softly. "Gold Snake, you're not planning on having us go up to _that_ place, are you?"

"Not fully," the golden colt replied. "See, we're going to gaze up at it, not go up on it." The donkey foal nodded, relieved, and the quartet trotted on, fully unaware that a certain blood bay colt was watching them.

The four foals came across a shallow river and followed it upstream. At one point, Gray Hoof broke away from them to splash in the cold water. He tossed his head and emitted a whuff of happiness. Couldn't this be any better?

It was not. As Gray Hoof splashed out of the water, he turned his head to look behind him...and gasped.

There, coming around the corner was Flame Gust, Yellow Lily, and Playful Cricket.

"G-G-Gold Snake?" he stammered, becoming nervous. "I-I-I think there's a p-p-problem…"

"What?" the said-colt demanded. Gray Hoof whuffed loudly three times and Gold Snake came alongside him. From there, he saw what the donkey foal had seen.

"You!" he cried as Flame Gust cantered up to them. "What're you doing out here? I thought you were asleep!"

"We saw you leave, the fillies and I," answered Flame Gust contemptuously. "As soon as I made sure that the grown-up horses in the herd had drifted off into slumber, I convinced the fillies here to follow me and have you four brought back to the herd to be punished. That way, I can prove to my parents that I am worthy of being the next leader of the River Herd." He smirked as his gaze fell over Flower Song and Gray Hoof, who shied away.

"We're sorry, Gold Snake," Yellow Lily apologized. "We told him to leave you guys alone, but—" Flame Gust glared at her and she fell silent.

He turned back to the quartet and commanded, "You come with me right now. We are going to return to the herd, and I will tell them all about your shenanigans."

"Why should we?" Flower Song challenged, pinning her ears back. His arrogance was one of the reasons why she did not like him.

"Because I am the colt of the leaders. And _you're_ going to be my future mate, whether or not you like Gold Snake." He advanced on them. Flower Song, Gray Hoof, and Leaping Puma backed away from him, but Gold Snake remained firm.

"Flame Gust, why are you like this?" he demanded. "We used to be friends…"

"Come, now," Flame Gust snapped, starting to get aggravated. "No more pro…procra…fooling around. You all are coming back with me. You hear?" Gray Hoof decided not to instigate the silver blood bay colt and slowly walked past him, his head down in submission. Playful Cricket gazed at him with sympathy.

Leaping Puma's hazel orbs darted from his foster brother to Flame Gust and back to the former again. He saw the colt's anger and emitted a sigh of defeat. He, too, walked past him and joined Gray Hoof.

"You see?" Flame Gust was proud of himself. "I do have the markings of a leader, do I not? A leader needs to be firm with his herd mates, or else things will go topsy-turvy. Now, Gold Snake and Flower Song, are you going to give in and come with us? Or do you two want to be alone forever?"

Gold Snake did not answer him. Neither did Flower Song. They exchanged a glance with one another before high-tailing it out of there.

"Stop!" Flame Gust whinnied, charging after them. Gray Hoof, Playful Cricket, Yellow Lily, and Leaping Puma trailed behind him, curious to see what would happen.

"Do you think they'll fight, brother? Flame and Snake?" Gray Hoof asked his foster brother.

Leaping Puma rejoined with, "I don't know, but maybe they will. They hate each other."

Gold Snake and Flower Song ran towards the trees, but then they doubled back and rushed towards the river. Neither of them slowed down as they jumped into it, but Flame Gust skidded to a halt and glared at them.

"This isn't over, mark my words!" he bellowed at them. "I'll make sure you'll get in so much trouble, Gold Snake! And the same goes for you, Flower Song!" Gray Hoof and the others laughed at him for acting melodramatic…but when they looked behind the colt, they gasped.

"Uh…Flame Gust?" Yellow Lily squeaked. "Look behind you." Flame Gust gazed skeptically at her before taking a quick glance over his shoulder.

"…Ah, animal droppings…"

The adults of the River Herd were gazing sternly down at the foals, but mostly at Flame Gust. Lake Eyes snorted angrily and arrogated, "Flame Gust, what are you and the others doing out here?"

Flame Gust was getting nervous. "Oh, hello, Father, I didn't expect—"

"My son, tell you father what you and all of your friends are doing out here when you should've been asleep," Red Arrow ordered him, her green eyes filled with anger.

"It…it…it wasn't my fault!" Flame Gust exclaimed. "I…Gold Snake…"

"Flame Gust and Yellow Lily and I went after Gold Snake, Flower Song, Leaping Puma, and Gray Hoof, Leader Red Arrow," Playful Cricket piped up. "He saw them run off and decided to get them in trouble."

"Well, it seems to me that _all of you_ are in trouble," Crow Scratch concurred. "Isn't this correct, Leader Lake Eyes?"

The silver buckskin stallion nodded. "When the foals born three years ago went missing in the Great Rock Valley, we were petrified and became worried about what would become of them. Some thought they would be killed by wolves, but others said that the Tornado Herd would come across them and use them against us. But once we found them at Half Dome, we'd been relieved to see that they were safe and sound. But after that, we wanted to make sure this would never happen again. The River Herd's future depended on our offspring, and, until they were old enough to leave, we had to enforce the rule that they were to stay nearby, and never stray off. Now, we have to once again enforce it. Come along, you seven. We'll depart from the valley first thing in the morning."

The foals groaned and complained about this, and Red Arrow asserted, "It is clear that you foals are not yet ready to roam the Great Rock Valley. We will return next summer, when we know you foals are older." She and Lake Eyes began heading back to where they had bedded down for the night.

As he passed Gold Snake, Flame Gust gave his ex-friend a cold stare. Gray Hoof even heard him say, "I'll make sure you regret this, Gold Snake. You wait and see."

* * *

**This will be a two-part chapter. Expect a new character in the 2nd part. **


	14. Through the Seasons, Part 2

The River Herd left first thing in the morning and headed northward until they reached a meadow that was split in half by a stream, and beyond the forest that rose up on the eastern side was Lava Beds National Monument. Under the alert eyes of Spotted Cloud and Crow Scratch, the seven young foals frolicked in the grass while the rest of the herd grazed nearby. But they still stayed in their own groups and kept to each end of the meadow.

"I wish they'd go back to being friends again," Spotted Cloud sighed one afternoon. "This rivalry is becoming too difficult to tolerate."

"At least they are not fighting," Green Fern pointed out. "Then, if they do fight, the leaders will finally demand that they make peace."

Spotted Cloud frowned at her. "But the question is this: _when_ will it happen?" Green Fern did not know.

This was how it had been for the next two weeks. The foals played, Gray Hoof's foster mother and the grulla gelding watched over them, and Red Arrow and Lake Eyes either patrolled the area or conversed with the other mares.

Then, early one afternoon, when the sun was blocked by giant, puffy clouds, and Gray Hoof and his friends were laying in the grass after a energy-sapping game of tag, Lake Eyes neighed out as he and Red Arrow emerged from the trees. The mares and foals heard him and immediately moved over to them, full of questions.

"What's happened, Leader Lake Eyes?"

"The Tornado Herd's nearby, isn't it?"

"We might have to leave here, and I don't want to. It's very nice."

"Settle down, everyone," Lake Eyes said in a calm voice. "The Tornado Herd isn't _anywhere_ near us." Flying Dove, who had felt nervous since the last confrontation with the enemy herd, let out a heavy sigh of relief.

"We have a new addition in the herd," Red Arrow announced, gesturing to the trees. From there, a black mare emerged into their presence, her copper eyes wide with curiosity and her ears forward and alert. She looked to be no older than five years, with a blaze inclining down her face and a white stocking on her right foreleg. Her long mane and tail suggested that she had some Andalusian in her.

"Everyone, this mare is Moon Runner," Lake Eyes told his herd. "She's been chased out of her birth herd last winter, and she's going to stay with us from now on."

"I…uh...thank you, L-Leader Lake Eyes," Moon Runner stuttered. Flame Gust giggled at this, but Red Arrow gave him a hard look that forced him to keep himself quiet.

Gray Hoof now found himself to be in the spotlight no more; it had shifted to the new mare. But the donkey foal didn't mind; he was glad to see a new face in the River Herd. He, Gold Snake, Leaping Puma, and Flower Song became good friends with Moon Runner, who had offered to babysit in place of Crow Scratch and Spotted Cloud.

Just three days after the arrival of Moon Runner, the River Herd was on the move again. This time, they traveled south for two days and then made a sharp turn west and headed in that direction for a whole day. Throughout that whole migration, they did not come across the Tornado Herd.

When the River Herd settled down in a bog in the evening, Green Fern trotted up to Lake Eyes and said to him, "We have not seen Powerful Wolf or his mate for several weeks, sir. It seems to me that they've finally understood that you are a force to be reckoned with very much, and they have gone off to harass other herds."

"She's right," Red Arrow concurred. "It has been more than a moon since the last confrontation."

"I doubt Powerful Wolf would give up _that_ easily," Lake Eyes mumbled.

* * *

The Tornado Herd had gone far up north for the summer, settling down in a prairie within Yellowstone Park, where two more of Powerful Wolf's mares, Tiny Sunflower and Sweet Wind, conceived his offspring. This brought up the number of pregnant Tornado mares to four. Tiny Sunflower was a palomino Appaloosa and Sweet Wind was a gray. Powerful Wolf also decided that he needed to practice his fighting skills in order to be ready when he confronted Lake Eyes again. Last time, it had been too soon, too quick a battle. He had to prepare himself in order to face his enemy again.

Not only this, but Powerful Wolf had also been telling the lies about the River Herd adopting the strange-looking foal, saying that it would wipe out all the mustangs in the world.

* * *

The River Herd let the rest of summer fly by them as they became comfortable in the bog.

Let me tell you about the bog the herd had settled in. It stretched out for four miles in all directions, the northern end being bordered by sumac trees. The adults of the herd used this as their advantage, telling their foals that they cannot go past those trees. Little pools of water dotted the western and southern part here and there, and willow trees towered above the bigger pools. A few dead juniper trees sprouted from the earth near the center, and in the area they surrounded, the foals were bedded down here when they had to go to sleep.

But the foals still could not get along. As soon as they were up, Flame Gust and Gold Snake went to different ends of the bog, taking their followers with them. The incident from several weeks ago still lingered above them. Although Gold Snake was planning on avoiding the leaders' son as much as possible, Flame Gust was planning his revenge on his ex-friend.

"Flame Gust, don't you think you're overreacting to this?" Playful Cricket asked him one foggy morning. "I mean, you and he used to be friends…now look at what's happened."

"_He_ started it by wandering away in the Great Rock Valley, Cricket," Flame Gust said stolidly. "It was _his_ fault. He's going to regret the whole thing." Playful Cricket and Yellow Lily exchanged nervous glances with one another.

"Come on, Flame," Yellow Lily pleaded. She moved up beside him and touched his shoulder. "I say you should forgive him for wandering off and let the past stay in the past. Cricket and I…we miss playing with the others, especially Flower Song. Please, just forgive him. For us?"

Flame Gust's dark blue eyes looked into the same-colored eyes of his younger half-sister. He had an idea on how to get even with the son of Desert Wind, but with Yellow Lily begging for him to forgive the colt…

"All right, fine," Flame Gust sighed in defeat. Yellow Lily and Playful Cricket became excited. At last, the conflict would end!

"Tag, you're it!" Gray Hoof brayed, touching Flower Song's barrel with his nose.

"Hey, get back here!" Flower Song whinnied at him. Gray Hoof brayed again as the red dun filly began to pursue him. Leaping Puma pranced after her, his hazel eyes shining.

The foals suddenly heard a whinny. They immediately stopped, thinking that it was one of the adults calling them over, but when they turned towards the noise, they gasped to see Flame Gust standing there, with Yellow Lily and Playful Cricket on either side of him.

"You!" Gold Snake exclaimed. "What do you want?"

"Flame Gust here wants to say something," Playful Cricket answered. Then, she turned to her half-brother and whispered, "Go ahead."

"Okay, Gold Snake," Flame Gust stated as he stepped forward. Gray Hoof and Leaping Puma back up a step or two. "I just wanted to let you know that I have realized how mean I was back in the Great Rock Valley, and I'm here to say that I am sorry."

Gray Hoof's ears perked up. "You _are_?"

Flame Gust nodded sincerely. "I am. I hope you guys can accept my apology, especially you, Flower Song."

Gray Hoof and his friends looked fixedly at Flame Gust. Was this it? Has the leaders' colt surrendered his attempts to get revenge on them? It seemed so. The four foals discussed this for a few minutes before they responded.

"All right, Flame Gust," Gold Snake said. "We'll forgive you."

"But you have to be less bossy from now on," Flower Song elucidated. "Otherwise, you can't be our friend anymore."

"I understand," Flame Gust rejoined, nodding his head.

Playful Cricket and Yellow Lily squealed blithely and rushed towards Flower Song, hugging her.

"I'm so happy that Flame apologized!" Yellow Lily said merrily. "We've missed playing with you, Flower!"

"I actually missed playing with you guys, too," Flower Song admitted, keeping her light blue eyes on the silver blood bay colt. "And I'm glad that Flame Gust has given up, right?"

"Definitely!" Flame Gust chirped. Then, when Gold Snake, Leaping Puma, and Gray Hoof were chatting with Yellow Lily and Playful Cricket, Flame Gust whispered under his breath, "For _now_."

* * *

It was not until the leaves began to change colors did the River Herd leave the bog. By now, most of the foals were much bigger, with Gray Hoof being the smallest and Flame Gust the largest. Their manes and tails were getting longer, their baby coats were being shed, and they were considered to be quite handsome. And not only that, the adults in the River Herd had noticed that all seven foals were together once again, which made them very happy.

Lake Eyes took the River Herd twenty miles west of the bog, where they rested for two days in a forest before heading down south. As they migrated in that direction, they passed by a small herd of mustangs, who cowered in fright at the sight of Gray Hoof. Spotted Cloud gazed at the herd with confusion. What did her adopted son do that was wrong?

The whole autumn was spent moving from place to place, never stopping except to sleep for the night or to graze and drink water. The foals seldom got a chance to frolic, and when they did, it was only for a brief time.

Gray Hoof found the constant traveling extremely tiring. He was always trying to keep up alongside his foster mother, but his short legs prevented him from doing so.

One overcast evening, the River Herd was following a river upstream, having no idea about their next destination. Up in front was Red Arrow, and behind her came Green Fern, then Crow Scratch, and the rest of the herd, with Gray Hoof, Flame Gust, and Lake Eyes bringing up the rear. Red Arrow, after discussing with her mate, had set the herd's pace to be at a canter, no faster or slower.

Gray Hoof had been doing well at first, but as the herd continued their travel, his energy began to dissipate.

"Hey, move faster!" Flame Gust whinnied when the donkey colt bumped into him on accident.

"I'm sorry," the donkey foal apologized. "I really am." He tried to pick up the pace, but due to the fact that he was tired, poor Gray Hoof was unable to.

"Come _on_, move your rear!" Flame Gust whinnied. "You're holding up the rest of us!"

"Flame Gust, keep silent!" Lake Eyes ordered.

"But Father—"

"No buts, my son. Just be quiet and keep moving." The blood bay colt pinned his ears back and snorted. Gray Hoof looked over his shoulder to see that Flame Gust was glaring at him. Once again, the donkey foal tried to increase his pace, but failed. And once again, he bumped right into the leaders' son.

"Oh…Father!" Flame Gust exclaimed. "Gray Hoof's slowing down!"

The other mares shushed the colt.

"Be quiet, young one!" Moon Runner ordered. "What if there are bachelor stallions nearby?" With a heavy sigh, Red Arrow stopped the herd and trotted up to where Gray Hoof was.

"All right, what is the matter?" she asked him.

Before Gray Hoof could reply, Flame Gust cried out, "Mo_ther_, Gray Hoof is being too slow! He should be at the back of the line!" Lake Eyes gave his son a firm nip on the withers.

"Is this true, young foal?" Red Arrow inquired, keeping her eyes on Gray Hoof.

Gray Hoof nodded. "I'm sorry, Leader Red Arrow," he apologized.

"What will we do about him, miss?" asked Green Fern.

Red Arrow looked from the donkey foal to her son and back to the young donkey again. What _could_ she do that would satisfy everyone?

"Leader Red Arrow, I could keep him next to me," Spotted Cloud suggested.

The Morgan mare looked over at the pintaloosa. "Very well, then," she said. "But I don't want this happening with Gray Hoof again. Do I make myself clear, young foal?"

"Yes, Leader Red Arrow," Gray Hoof rejoined.

* * *

After the minor incident, Lake Eyes later decided that the donkey foal was to trail at the end of the herd, so no one would be slowed down by mistake. "This is for the best," he later told Spotted Cloud. She reluctantly agreed with his decision. So did Gray Hoof.

But not Leaping Puma. He was not pleased to hear that his foster brother would be at the far end of the herd, away from him and their friends.

Gray Hoof decided that, as long as he was still part of the River Herd, this decision would be all right with him.

But this was _before_ he saw his first snowfall.

* * *

**Happy New Year to y'all!!**


	15. The End of the Line

**Hey guys, this is Kino Lala. **

**I am highly aware that I have not updated this story since January of 2010, and since that last update, I have been very, very busy with other stories on here as well as on my Fictionpress account, not to mention school, work, and my family. I lost my paternal grandmother in February, and we had to attend the funeral as well as get rid of her things. My grandmother had remarried earlier in the new millennium, and the step-grandfather had passed away towards the end of 2009. Not only did my grandmother's things had to get taken out, but his things had to, too.**

**Along with this, my senior year is pretty busy. Yep, I'm a senior. I've taken a Driver's Ed class, I'm in THE FRICKIN' WORK PROGRAM AGAIN, and to wrap it all up, I'm in a Writing Fiction and Poetry class, and the class has helped me improved my writing skills by a lot.**

**So, here I am, looking back on how Child of the Mustangs has gone. Well...it's weird now that I look at it. For example, at the beginning of the story, they mention some sort of "Prophecy" that would later involve Gray Hoof/Lazarus, but as the story progresses, it's barely being mentioned. **

**I apologize for this, but I've decided to cancel this story. Permanently. I may rewrite it one day, but with different plot elements. Yes, Lazarus will be taken. Yes, Lazarus will be mistreated. Yes, Lazarus will go to the wild, get his name changed to "Gray Hoof," and learn how to survive in the wilderness. No, there won't be a Prophecy. At. All.**

**...Just in case if anyone wanted to know the ending, Virginia eventually escapes, reunites with Lazarus, and the two fall in love. The Tornado Herd finally confronts the River Herd and Powerful Wolf gets overthrown. Lavender Scent and the other mares flee, except for Red Salmon, who joins the herd and has a foal of her own. Lazarus and Virginia grow old and leave so they can form their own herd, a herd that will take in runaway donkeys. And it is here that they have a foal of their own (I think the foal's supposed to be a girl that is named after Lazarus's mother) and reunite with Bernard and Elizabeth. The end.**

**So, from here on out, no more Child of the Mustangs. After two years, it's finally ending, and it's not the way you expected it to end.**

**This is Kino Lala signing off. **

**Have a good New Year's.**


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